Jealous Much?
by zkjanie
Summary: Despite being her best friend, Zuko's in love with Katara, and is willing to do anything to make her happy. Even if that means giving her up to an enemy who already belongs to someone else. AU Title Change
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing...except this plot.

Note: Wow, my first chapter for ANYTHING in over about half a year. Damn. That's a long time! Well, anyway, this is my newest story, and I don't really have much to say about this except that this chapter is pretty much like an introduction, or a prologue and I hope you guys like it! Also, I would like to thank all my friends who helped me get out of my writers' blocks and help me write this chapter. Luv ya!

--

"Wooow Jet, did you really teach yourself Tae Kwon Do? That's _amazing!_" a very distant and girly voice asked.

"That's right." Jet smirked and winked at the girl.

Jet, the infamous and notorious player of the school. Ever since he was in the 4th grade, he was known to be hitting on any girl that caught his eye. However, he was also known to have broken the most hearts of girls.

"WOW! That's so cool!" yet another one of those shrill shallow girls swarming around Jet squealed as they walked in through the front door of Ba Sing Se High.

"Yeah, yeah, you bitches better remember that Jet's MY boyfriend. So shoo!" Ty Lee, otherwise known as head cheerleader and most popular girl in school, warned.

Ty Lee and Jet have been a thing ever since the 9th grade, and no one ever dared to come in between them. In fact, no one had even dared to think about coming in between them. But then again, what with Ty Lee's oh so incredible jealousy and Jet's seductive ways, it was almost too much for anyone to NOT come in between, as it would have been way too tempting.

"Hey, hey Ty Lee, relax. It's no big deal." Jet said, smirking. "Right girls?"

All the girls burst out in exaggerated high-pitched giggles.

"God, can you believe them? They're always like 'hee-hee-hee-hee'! How annoying." Katara scoffed from down the hallway.

"Huh, yeah, I know." Zuko, who stood right next to her, replied.

"Those air-head girls are so unbelievable. It's almost like they think their soul purpose in life is to try feeling up to Jet." Katara scoffed even more. Only this time, with more frustration.

As Katara turned to leave, she caught a glimpse of Jet looking her way from the corner of her eye. Surprised, and even shocked, that he was looking at her, she tripped over her own two feet and almost fell to the ground. Halfway though, Zuko was luckily able to see her falling and quickly caught her before she touched the floor.

"Whoa. Are you okay?" Zuko asked, with widened eyes.

"Wha? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." Katara said and stood up properly, her face red with embarrassment. As Zuko helped her up, Katara paid her attention to Jet once more. Zuko caught her looking and just sighed.

_Huh, well what'd you know? That Katara girl is kinda cute. Maybe... _Jet thought and sent Katara a flirtatious look, along with a wink.

_Oh my god! He's looking this way!_ Katara thought and blushed to herself with a small grin splattered upon her face.

_Tch, why's she blushing? There's nothing to be blushing about. _Zuko thought in disbelief and lightly scoffed at the sight of her blushing.

RIIINNGG!

"Alright, come on. Let's go." Zuko sighed tiredly and dragged the flustered Katara off to class with him.

"Oh. Okay." A flushed Katara replied and walked over to homeroom with Zuko.

"Good morning class! How are you all doing today?" Professor Jeong Jeong said. "Today, we're gonna be doing..."

"So, why were you all red just now?" Zuko whispered over to Katara.

"What? Noo, I wasn't red. Of course not! Why would I be red? I mean, it's not like I was blushing or whatever..." Katara quickly replied, realizing that Zuko had seen her blushing at Jet out in the hall.

"Uh huh. Is it because of that Jet kid that was staring at you?"

"N-No! Of course not! Why would you think that?" Katara stuttered with a fatuous and nervous grin on her face.

Zuko just stared at her.

"…Is it that obvious?" Katara sighed.

"Yeah. Pretty much." he replied.

"It's really a pity that he's dating Ty Lee though. Always thinking she's _all that_."

"What? Are you like jealo--"

"Zuko! Katara!" Professor Jeong Jeong yelled across the room. "Will you two kids stop flirting and get back to your books?"

Almost immediately, every student turned to face Zuko and Katara, who's faces were red as tomatoes in embarrassment. Then, just as quickly, all the kids turned back around and broke out in small whispers.

"Great. Just what we need. Even more fake rumors about us." Katara exasperated.

"Y-yeah. I know." Zuko whispered back.

"So what were you guys flirting about?" Jun turned around to face them and asked curiously.

"We weren't flirting!" they whispered back in unison.

"… Whatever you say."

RIINNG!

All the students quickly raced to the door and stormed outside as the bell for first period rang.

As Katara and Zuko strolled down the hallway to their next class, they spotted Jet. Of course he was with his girlfriend, Ty Lee. And once again, they were freely showing off their public display of affection.

"Ugh. Look at those two. Always making out in the hallway for the whole world to see." a voice behind Katara remarked.

"Hey Sokka. Hi Suki." Katara exclaimed turning around to see her brother and his girlfriend.

"Hey." Zuko waved to the both of them.

"Yo." Sokka replied. "Anyway, about that Jet kid."

"Yeah. I getting a weird vibe from him and I don't like him." Suki announced. "I like funny guys, like you, baby." and she gave Sokka a little kiss on the cheek.

"Alright, alright, you guys." Katara interrupted. "Besides, I don't think he's _that_ bad. It's just his stupid girlfriend I hate.

"If we hate them so much, why are we talking about them?" Zuko questioned curiously.

"--Alright you kids, enough gossiping." Professor Jeong Jeong interrupted. "Go to your classes."

"Yes sir!" they all replied in unison.

"So, you think you can help me at the Ba Sing Se Kid's Center afterschool?" Katara asked Zuko. Katara worked at the Ba Sing Se Kid's Center where middle school kids went to afterschool to stay out of trouble and have a good time.

"Um. Yeah, sure, why not." Zuko shrugged.

"Oh, good. Thanks! Some of those kids over there are such trouble makers."

_Katara's POV_

(many classes later)

_It's sixth period. Ugh. At least I have my phone with me to text some people._ Katara thought and furtively started texting Suki.

"..These microscopic organisms were first discovered by Professor Zei from Ba Sing Se University..." Mr. Tyro, our insanely boring teacher, lectured on.

_Neh. I wish this class would end already. _

RIINNG!

"Yes!" I yelled. I quickly grabbed my bag and shot up from my seat and ran straight for the door, shoving through everyone in my way.

"You're all dismissed! Except Jet and Ty Lee. Can you two stay for a second. I need to speak with the both of you." Mr. Tyro announced.

"Hey! Katara! Over here!" Zuko yelled from his car. _I've always liked his car. So much better than mine. He has a shiny black Porsche while I just have a tiny blue Jaguar._

"Hi Zuko. Let's go!" I yelled and ran over to him, and got in the car.

"Alright. So which way was the Kid Center place again?" he asked, starting the car and driving out of the parking lot of Ba Sing Se High.

"It's like, right around the corner from the Bei Fong Estate." I replied. The Bei Front Estate was this HUGE block of houses and every one of them belonged to Toph's parents. Toph's this girl in the Kid's Center. She tries to act all tough and stuff, but she's so adorable!

"...and we're here." Zuko said after much driving. We pulled into the parking lot and the car stopped.

"Alright. Cool. Let's go in." I couldn't even believe how excited I was to be going back, even though I've already been here before.

"Okay, okay. Calm down." Zuko chuckled as we walked into the building

"Hello Katara...and Katara's friend." Ms. Joo Dee greeted. As weird as Ms. Joo Dee was, she's the one who founded the Kid's Center to help the young unfortunate souls and keep them out of trouble.

"Hi Joo Dee. This is my friend Zuko. Is it alright if he stays and helps me on my shift today?" I asked.

"Oh, of course! The more the merrier!" She finished and headed toward the homework room.

"Okay, so let's start in the playroom. The kids over there are so cute!" I said.

"Heh heh. Okay. Let's actually go in now." Zuko muttered. We walked into the playroom, and literally immediately little Aang and Toph ran up to me.

"Hi Katara!" Aang exclaimed in excitement with a big goofy smile.

"Hey Aang. It's nice to see you again." I replied and squished his little cheeks.

_Third POV_

As soon as Katara let go of Aang's pale cheeks, a tint of red rose up on his cheeks and he quietly scratched the back of his buzzcut head.

Noticing Aang's obvious liking toward Katara, Toph plainly scoffed and punched Aang's arm. Hard.

"Hey hey, no violence." Zuko chuckled.

"Who's that?" Aang whispered to Katara.

"You guys remember my friend Zuko right?" Katara started. "Didn't you guys meet him when I first started working here?"

"Oh yeah. Hi." Aang greeted plainly.

"Yeah, Zuko, this is Toph here. Toph, Zuko." Katara introduced.

"Yo." Toph muttered and popped her bubble gum.

"Huh, she's just like Sokka" Zuko mumbled under his breath. "Hi."

"Alright well, I'll be right back. I gotta sign in and get my name tag." Katara said and left the room to fetch her things.

"So...what do you guys do here?" Zuko asked, trying to penetrate through the awkward silence between the three of them.

"We just, you know, come here afterschool, do some homework, have fun, stupid stuff like that..." Toph mumbled.

"I see." Zuko replied awkwardly when Katara finally came back.

"Okay! Come on Zuko, I've got something for you to do." Katara said and she and Zuko left.

"Wow. Isn't she pretty?" Aang asked Toph dreamily. "Do you think I might have a chance with her?"

"You? And Katara?" Toph questioned with a shocked look on her face.

Aang anxiously nodded.

"...Nope! Not a chance! Not a sliver of a chance. Not a pimple on the ass of the slive of a chance. Not a _freckle _on the pimple on the ass of a sliver of a chance--" Toph babbled.

"Okay, Okay! I got it." Aang yelled, or actually, whined.

--

Zuko followed Katara out to the parking lot. "So, what are we doing here?"

"Here's where you can help me out. We have to drive this truck all around the neighborhood middle schools and pick up the other kids. Normally I'm just supposed to go to the schools, park, and go find the kids, and do all that, but it takes such a long time to do it by myself. So today, you'll be driving and when we get to the schools, I can just hop off, get the kids, and we can go." Katara explained.

"Hmm, alright. Sounds easy enough." Zuko agreed and started the truck as Katara got in the passenger seat.

"So which one's the first school?" Zuko asked with his eyes glued to the road.

"Uh...let's see here...Oh, it's The Tree House Middle School. You know, the one near the park." Katara exclaimed.

"Okay..." Zuko replied and took a left turn.

"...So, what were you talking about with Aang and Toph while I was gone?" Katara questioned curiously.

"Nothing. I just asked them what they do there."

"Oh. So what'd they say?"

"Well, Toph said they just do like homework and stuff. And that Aang kid didn't say anything." Zuko explained and drove into the parking lot of Tree House Middle School. "Here we are."

"Alright, so I'm gonna go get the kids, you just stay right here. I'll be right back."

--

"God, can you believe Mr. Tyro?! He's so annoying! I mean, how can he just give us a week's worth of detention?! It's not like we did anything bad..." Ty Lee yelled and threw her arms in the air in frustration.

"Well, we were making out in front of everyone all week." Jet smirked. "And we all know how much Mr. Tyro enforces the rule of 'NO PDA' around campus."

"...true." Ty Lee sighed. "Well, speaking of PDA, who were you staring at this morning?"

"What? What are you talking about? I wasn't staring at anyone...besides you." Jet smirked _again_ and leaned in to Ty Lee for a kiss.

Ty Lee quickly stepped back. "No. You were definitely staring at someone. You were winking at them too."

"What? No I wasn't." Jet complained once more.

"...You were staring at that Katara girl again, weren't you?!" Ty Lee gasped, and her face soon cringed with anger.

"Are you kidding me? Why would I be looking at Katara...when I have you..." Jet said seductively and backed Ty Lee into the classroom. Giving in to her boyfriend, Ty Lee just scoffed and they both leaned in for a kiss. Another kiss.

--

"I'm back!" Katara yelled, sliding open the truck door. Then all of a sudden, two middle schoolers climbed into the truck.

With a confused look on his face, Zuko asked, "It took you that long to pick up only two students?"

"Well, they kept running away from me." Katara said and gave the two kids a glare. "Well anyway, Zuko, this kid here is named Ducas."

"It's THE DUKE!" The Duke yelled.

"Okay, okay The Duke. And this here is Pipsqueek." Katara introduced and pointed at the much...larger kid sitting next to The Duke.

"Hi." Pipsqueek greeted. Zuko just gave an awkward wave.

"So Katara, is Toph here today?" The Duke quickly chirped, curiousity dripping from his voice.

"Hmm...why do you wanna know, Dukey?" Katara asked back, picking up a vibe. Everyday, whenever Katara went to pick up The Duke, he would _always_ ask her if Toph was going to be at the Kid's Center.

"...N-no reason!...And it's The Duke!" he chirped again. Katara just laughed openly.

"Alright Zuko, drive us back to the Kid's Center please!" Katara exclaimed happily.

"Okay okay. Sit still." Zuko chuckled and drove out of the parking lot. He turned the corner and back up the street and they finally arrived at the Ba Sing Se Kid's Center once more.

"Alright kiddos, go on in there." Katara instructed.

"Hey Katara, do you know what time it is? I left my watch _and _my phone in my backpack." Zuko asked.

"Yeah sure, I have my phone right...here...Huh, that's weird, I thought I had my phone with me just now." Katara searched her pockets in her jacket and jeans, but no such phone was found.

"Are you sure you didn't leave it somewhere?" Zuko asked. "Try remembering where you left it."

"Huh, well let's see. I had my phone in sixth period. Then the bell rang and I ran...outside...OH MY GOD!" Katara gasped.

"What what?!"

"I think I left my phone in class!" Katara yelled in panic.

"Oh. Well. Then you better go get it now! You know how strict Mr. Tyro is about having phones in class!" Zuko warned. "Need a drive?"

"Nah. Too much traffic. I can run from here. Thanks! You can leave now too since my only job today was to pick up the kids." Katara quickly said and started running toward Ba Sing Se High.

"Bye Katara!"

"Bye! See you later!"

_God, how could I be so stupid to have left my phone at school?! And of all classes, in Mr. Tyro's class! Stupid! _Katara thought, getting angry with herself.

Katara ran around the corner and down the street. And there it was. Ba Sing Se High. She quietly but quickly slided open the front doors and quickly ran to Mr. Tyro's classroom. Luckily, the door was slightly open.

"Yes! There's my phone!" Katara whispered to herself. The phone was on the shelf next to the door. Y_es! Now I won't even have to sneak in to get my phone back! I can just get it! _Grinning to herself, Katara opened up the door a bit further in and walked in furtively to retrieve her phone when...

"Ah!" Katara gasped a bit too loudly. Right when she stepped inside the classroom, there they were. Jet and Ty Lee. Only this time, they were making out. Again.

Katara just stared, too shocked, too embarrassed to move, or to even look away.

Jet pulled away from his kiss and saw Katara there, just standing, as if nothing else to do. Ty Lee, once again noticing Jet looking at Katara again scoffed and stuck her tongue out at Katara. Shocker.

"What do _you_ want?" Ty Lee asked with an attitude.

"..."

"Hello?!"

"Huh? O-oh...S-Sorry...I-I just f-forgot my p-phone." Katara stuttered and quickly snatched her phone from the shelf next to her and ran out the door as fast as she could, with Jet's pitiful eyes lingering on her leaving.

"Ugh. God. Hate her." Ty Lee complained and leaned in to kiss Jet again.

"I'm tired. I'm gonna go home now." Jet yawned and grabbed his backpack and headed for the door too.

"What? Are you kidding me?!" Ty Lee exclaimed.

"You should go home too." Jet suggested and closed the door.

"Psh, some boyfriend you are..." Ty Lee whined and got her bag and trailed toward the door.

_To Be Continued..._

--

Well, there you go guys! The first chapter!! :D

(P.S. That one line that Toph says about Aang not having a chance was from Samurai Girl. I heard that line in the movie, and it was just so hilarious and i just had to use it! I don't own Samurai Girl)

R'n'R

-zkjanie


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing...except this plot

--

_Oh...my...god! How embarrassing! I just HAD to burge in on them! This is so humiliating! _Katara thought angrily as she ran on home. She quickly slammed open her front door and stomped across the hall.

"Hey Katara! What's up?" Sokka inquired as Katara as she made her way up the stairs.

"Nothing." Katara mumbled and quickly ran upstairs and into her room and into her balcony as she exploded, out "God! I'm so stupid!"

Whenever Katara had some kind of problem she had to deal with or just wanted to be by herself...or wanted someone to talk to..., she would always go to her quiet breezy balcony. It was typically the place she always went to just think.

"Damn it! So humiliating!" she cried out in frustration.

"What is?" an all too familiar voice questioned from the balcony across from hers.

"...Zuko? That you?" Katara expected in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Duh." Zuko cocked his head up from his little hammock and smirked, "So what's this thing that's so humiliating that you had to keep yelling about it for the past 5 minutes?"

"You heard me?"

"Of course! I could recognize your voice a mile away!"

"Uh huh...anyway...I ran into Jet...and Ty Lee. Kissing. I just, like, completely walked in on them!"

"Again?"

"...yeah" she sighed.

"How did it happen this time?" Zuko asked.

"I saw my phone in the classroom and I ran inside. But then Jet and Ty Lee were there making out. So I kinda stared at them for a while without even knowing Then I just ran out." Katara roughly explained.

"I see. Well, at least it's better than how you literally ran into them last week." Zuko joked.

"I guess." Katara said. "So, where'd you park the van?" she questioned, desperately trying to change the topic.

"Near the fence, where all the other ones are." Zuko replied, his mouth itching to say the word 'duh'.

"Alright. Good. Last time, I parked the thing near the hill behind the building, and Joo Dee completely ignored me for, like, a week! She's always so moody!"

"Yeah, she is, kinda. Oh! I brought your stuff back." Zuko added and handed Katara her light blue backpack.

"Oh, thanks. I completely forgot." she expressed in relief and grabbed her bag.

"--Hey Katara! Get downstairs! It's time to eat! We're having stewed sea prunes!" Sokka yelled happily from downstairs.

"I'm coming!" Katara shouted back. "Bye Zuko! See you later."

"See you." he grinned and Katara headed downstairs for her dinner.

"Night Katara." he whispered, a small barely noticeable smile formed upon his face. He sulked back into his maroon colored room and walked toward his calendar hanging on his wall to see his schedule for tomorrow. "October 9th...Therapist Appointment." Sighing, Zuko made his way downstairs to make his and his sister's dinner.

"Hey, Azula! What do you wanna eat for din--" Zuko asked on his way down the numerous stairs when he saw another person with his sister. "--Oh, hi Mai. You're awfully early for your tutor session."

Zuko was Mai's tutor. Had been ever since last year. Every Thursday after dinner, Mai would come to Zuko's house and he would tutor her.

"Hi." Mai chirped in a small whisper and slightly looked as she lightly blushed.

Staring at Mai weirdly, Azula demanded, "I honestly could not care any less than I do now what you make. Just make sure it tastes magnificent and is worthy enough to be consumed by me."

"Tch. Conceited." Zuko muttered to himself. Mai snickered quietly.

"Excuse me? I should inform you that I for one, am most definitely NOT conceited." Azula declared from across the room.

"Okay okay. No need to yell! Geez!" Zuko, unknowingly, yelled.

--

"Did you hear that?" Katara asked Sokka across the dinner table.

"Hm? Hear what?" Sokka asked with a mouth full of food.

"I think Zuko and Azula are fighting again."

"Again? They really need to stop fighting." Sokka said, swallowing down the last bit of food in his mouth.

"Yeah, I know..." Katara muttered.

--

"God! So picky! What did I ever do in my past life that made me get such a horrible sister?!" Zuko yelled in his room after dinner.

_Knock, knock_

"Who is it?"

"Mai."

"Oh, right. Tutor time. Come on in." Zuko remembered and Mai quietly walked into the room and sat obliviously sat on his bed as Zuko sat at his desk.

"Alright, so what do you need help on today?" Zuko asked grabbing his load of textbooks on his shelf.

"Well, nothing really. I finished all my homework with Azula." Mai mumbled.

"Oh. Okay then. I guess you can go home then. Or hang with Azula or something." Zuko suggested and headed back for the door.

"--Uh, no, um, okay, I guess." Mai stuttered and left the room.

"Tch, weird girl." Zuko muttered under his lip and went back out to his balcony for some fresh air. He slid open the door and fashionably sulked outside and threw himself onto his hammock. He threw his arms behind his head and looked up into the night sky as millions of shining stars surrounded the bright glowing crescent moon.

"Isn't that beautiful?" a voice asked.

"Huh? Oh, hey Katara." Zuko greeted as he tilted his head to see Katara sitting on her couch looking at the sky as well. "I guess it is."

"So, were you and Azula fighting again?" Katara asked, just out of curiousity.

"Yeah. She kept complaining about how the food on her plate were touching. She's so damn picky."

"I feel your pain. Sokka was keep chatting on the phone during dinner. He's such a chatterbox."

"Let me guess, with Suki?" Zuko guessed.

"Yeah, they're so lucky though, to have such a healthy relationship, especially in high school..." Katara sighed. Ba Sing Se High were always so full of love triangles and such, and sometimes, it was so hard for anyone to handle...

"That's true. Well, it's getting a little dark. We should turn in." Zuko suggested and stood up from his hammock.

"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow!" Katara said and stepped back into her room. "--Oh wait. You have that appointment thing tomorrow right?"

"Yup. I have to go see Dr. Wu first thing tomorrow morning." Zuko exclaimed. "Gah! I don't even know WHY I have a stupid appointment with her anyway! I don't have problems! I don't need therapy."

"Zuko! Calm down!" Katara said reaching out to him. "Look, your doctor obviously set up that appointment for a reason. A reason that he thinks that you might have some sort of problem or issue with. And you should respect that, and at least go see Dr. Wu."

"Yeah, but _why_ should I respect that? It's not like this Dr. Wu person can fix any problem that my doctor thinks I might have."

"At least go see her. And who knows, she might be able to help you, whether you actually have a problem or not."

"Alright fine." Zuko mumbled. "G'night."

"Night." Katara sighed and went back to her room.

--

"Hi Azula! What's up?" Ty Lee exclaimed happily on the phone.

"Why'd you call me this late at night? Don't you know that I need my beauty sleep?"

"Oh, sorry. I just needed to talk with someone."

"Go talk with Mai. I need my sleep!" Azula yelled and hung up the phone.

Back at her house, Ty Lee pouted and quickly dialed Mai's number on her phone and patiently waited for her to pick up.

"--Hello?" Mai's dull voice greeted.

"Hi Mai! It's Ty Lee."

"Oh. Hi. Why'd you call me?"

"I need to talk with somebody."

"Okay. About what?"

"You know that Katara girl? She's, like, best friends with Zuko?"

"Oh...yeah, I know her." Mai hesitated, with a cringing tone in her voice.

"Yeah. Well, that stupid girl walked right in on me and Jet at school today!" Ty Lee complained.

"I see." Mai simply said.

"Yeah...We need to do something about her..."

"Yeah..."

To Be Continued...

--

I know, short and boring chapter...but not to worry! Next chapter will probably be more interesting...SPOILER: theres a dream in there


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing...except this plot.

A/N: Sorry for the late update guys...but so much has happened over the last few weeks that it was just almost impossible for me to write this chapter early. Like, for example, GOBAMA!!!!

* * *

"Alright fine." Zuko mumbled. "G'night."

"Night." Katara sighed and went back to her room. Just as quickly, Zuko slid back through his room and into the hall outside and headed silently over to the bathroom to wash up.

Sighing, Zuko flatly grabbed his worn out toothbrush from the cup in front of the mirror and routinely placed a decent amount of toothpaste upon it and proceeded to brush his teeth. Looking up at the mirror half-heartedly, his golden eyes stared back at his burned scar that lay upon a full third of his pale face.

"Gah!" Zuko yelled and threw his toothbrush into the sink with anger.

"Be quiet Zuko! Can't you see I'm trying to sleep here?!" Azula screeched from down the hall.

"Shut up Azula!" Zuko yelled in reply. Never had he ever yelled at his younger sister, and now that he finally did, an emotion filled with nervousness and fear overwhelmed him completely. But at the same time, an emotion filled with pride and accomplishment showered over him.

BOOM! Azula, with her insane strength, busted down the bathroom door and Zuko could clearly see Azula's mouth slowly turn into a big frown, her brows furrowing(A/N: I'm not sure if thats the right word...), and the creases of anger in her forehead became instantly evident.

"Oh shit." Zuko squeeked out and both his eyes, even his scarred one that rarely ever showed any emotion, widened increasingly.

10 minutes later, Zuko ended up hanging outside his house with the back of his shirt hanging onto the tip of the lightpost and Azula sleeping soundly in her room. With a glum expression on his face, Zuko reached around in his pocket for a certain something. Eventually, in the very inside of his pocket, he found a small sized peanut and aimed it precisely at Katara's bedroom window and threw it.

Clank! The peanut hit the window and immediately bounced off to the ground. Moments later, Katara appeared at her window with a confused look upon her face.

Opening her window, Katara exclaimed, "Zuko? Is that you?"

He feebly nodded.

"What are you doing there?" Katara asked, trying desperately to hold back a laugh.

"Azula."

"Ah. Of course."

"Whatever. Can you help me down from here?"

"Um...sure. But how?" Katara asked quickly and rushed outside.

"Didn't you say last week that Sokka has a ladder in the garage?"

"Oh yeah! Be right back." Katara exclaimed and ran to her garage and pulled out her brother's ladder. She dragged the heavy ladder outside, panting as she propped it up to the pole. Meanwhile, Zuko tried his hardest to remove his shirt; clearly seeing as how he was unable to remove the back of his shirt from the tip of the lightpost.

"You okay?" Katara questioned while holding tightly onto the ladder, making sure it wouldn't wobble while Zuko freely slid his shirt off and stepped down onto the ladder.

"Yeah, I'm fine now." Zuko exclaimed while jumping off from the ladder and he quickly set his eyes on the top of the pole. "My only problem now is how I'm gonna get my shirt back."

That's when Katara realized that Zuko didn't have his shirt one and started to blush furiously seeing his well-built body. Remainging silent, Katara tried her hardest to focus on other things other than Zuko.

Noticing the awkward silence, Zuko faced Katara and his face turned just as red as hers when he saw that she was blushing from looking at him. "U-um...d-do you need help g-getting the ladder back i-inside?"

"...huh? Oh, oh yeah. Sure. Thanks." Katara thanked awkwardly and reached out to grab the ladder, which Zuko did the same, and they made their way into Katara's garage.

Carefully setting down the ladder against the wall, Katara said, "You should go inside now, or you might catch a cold."

"Thanks. Goodnight...er, again."

"You too." Katara said and scurried inside, closing the door behind her. Once away from hearing distance from Zuko, she leaned down against the wall and sighed in relief. "My god, since when did I start to blush around Zuko?"

_Well, he does have a nice body..._Katara's thoughts argued.

"Eh, I guess that's true."

_Well, seeing as how much you were blushing around him, of course it's true!_

"W-What, psh--"

"Katara! Be quiet!" Sokka whined from down the hall. "I'm trying to sleep please!"

"Sorry!" Katara yelled back and tiptoed back into her room and comfortably crawled back into bed.

* * *

Crawling in through the window carefully, Zuko stepped into his room and slipped on a light T shirt and rolled into bed and under the covers.

"_Come on Zuko! You must dance with someone!" Uncle Iroh exclaimed and dragged Zuko out to the dance floor to mingle._

"_No uncle! I told you! I don't wanna dance with anyone!"Zuko snapped in reply. _

"_Well, there's Miss Katara. Why not dance with her?" Iroh suggested. Once hearing his uncle's remark, Zuko immediately turned his head over to the beautiful blue-eyed figure standing near the punch table. Pondering over the thought of actually asking her to dance, Zuko finally made a decision and cooly strolled over to Katara. _

"_Excuse me, miss. But I was wondering if you would like to dance with me..." Zuko asked and bowed while holding out a hand. Smiling happily, Katara layed her hand on his and he two glided over to the center of the dance floor as the fast tango music made a sudden switch to a light romantic song. _

_Zuko and Katara got into a dance position, Katara's hand upon Zuko's shoulder and Zuko's hand wrapped around Katara's waist. As soon as the other couples around them started to dance, Zuko and Katara swirled around the dance floor in sync with the music. And soon, everyone stepped back to watch the couple dancing magnificently and all eyes laid on them. However, right as the song was about to end, Katara immediately ran off and out of sight. Just as Zuko was going ot go after her though, a mysterious guy with brownish bushy hair appeared before him and dragged him into a mysterious and dark room. The figure pushed Zuko violently into the room and locked the door after him. _

"_W-Who are you?" Zuko asked._

"_She wanted me to give this to you." the figure replied, handing Zuko what seemed to be a red-colored choker._

"_Who?"_

"_The girl you were dancing with."_

"_You mean Katara?"_

"_U-um...sure." the figure finished and immediately vanished into thin air. Shrugging, Zuko simply put on the choker, but before he knew it, the choker began to shrink increasnigly, leading Zuko to panic._

"_My god. What the hell...what's going on?" Zuko said to himself as he desperately tried to pry off the choker._

"_Shh..." A mysterious female figure whispered into Zuko's ear, instantly calming him down._

"_Huh?" Zuko muttered and looked up to see someone who looked like Katara pulling off the choker. _

"_Shush..." the lady said and hugged his head to silence him..._

RING! RING! RING!

After hearing the bell ring numerous times, Zuko fially awoke to the sunshine piercing in through his room. Slowly getting up, he stretched his arms and yawned.

"Whoa..." he muttered, suddenly realizing what he was dreaming and rubbed the back of his neck. Walking his way toward the hall, the sudden noise of his vibrating phone interrupted him.

'KATARA' read the caller ID.

Picking up the phone and holding it up against his ear, he greeted, "Yeah?"

"Hey, it's me. Are you ready yet? The place only serves breakfast until 9." Katara replied. Smacking his head by his sudden realization, he quickly ran toward his closet. It turned out that he and Katara had scheduled for breakfast together that day since they both had to go somewhere that morning by car, so _Why not have breakfast together?_

He took a quick glace at his alarm clock which read '8:00' and replied, "Uh, yeah. I just woke up. Um, give me about 10 minutes."

"Alright then. I'll be outside." Katara said and hung up.

* * *

Tapping her foot impatiently, Katara waited near the lamp post from last night. As she began to remember the event that took place last night, the distant sound of a motorcycle engine running was heard.

Wanting to know who it was, Katara stood up and squinted t the distant figure heading toward her. Almost immediately, the motorcycle came to a complete halt in front of her and the figure cooly removed his helmet to reveal someone none other than Jet. Of course.

"Hey Katara." Jet smirked.

"...Oh, h-hi Jet! Wow, that's a great ride you have there.!" Katara gasped, with big curious eyes.

"Yeah, finished fixing her up last month." he bragged.

"That's so cool!" Katara exclaimed.

"Alright Katara. I'm ready. Let's..." Zuko started to say as he locked his front door. But as soon as he turned around and saw Jet with Katara, Zuko's facial expression turned cold and serious as a small green monster within him started to emerge. "...go."

"Yo." Jet waved, putting on his helmet again.

"Well, um, bye Jet! Let's go Zuko." Katara said, already being able to tell the awkward atmosphere between the three of them, and pushed Zuko toward his car. As she pushed however, Zuko stared sternly at Jet, who was currently riding off down the street.

* * *

"Oh, Ji Yi! Can you please hurry up on the greent tea for table 6?" Iroh instructed from across the large room of his tea shop, The Jasmine Dragon.

"Yes sir!" Ji Yi responded and carried a tray of tea cups toward the table.

"Hey! Uncle! Can we get some breakfast?" Zuko yelled to his uncle, walking in through the entrance of the shop with Katara.

"Oh Zuko! And Katara! Welcome! Come on in and take a seat. I'll be with you in a second." Iroh greeted and ran behind the counter.

"So. You're going to the therapy place right after this?" Katara asked Zuko curiously, setting down her bag and sat down.

"Yup." Zuko replied as his uncle walked over to them with menus.

"Hello Zuko. Hello Katara." Iroh greeted cheerfully. "So what would you to like this morning?"

"Hi uncle. Um, I guess I'll have a regular croissant with strawberry jam..." Zuko said, keeping his eyes glued to the menu.

"And I think I'l have a blueberry scone." Katara smiled and looked up at Zuko who plainly rolled his eyes. Anyone who knew Katara well would know that she had a very special place in her heart for blueberries. Especially since she dressed up as a big blueberry last year for Halloween.

"And what kind of tea?" Iroh asked, scribbling down the two's orders.

"Jasmine!" Zuko and Katara said in unison.

"Alright then. Ji Yi will come soon with your order." Iroh explained and turned to leave. But before doing so, he turned slightly toward Zuko and gave him a wink.

"Ahahaha! That's awesome Jet." a voice from across the room giggled. Hearing the sound of Jet's name instantly made Katara turn around. But when she did, she immediately regretted it seeing as how it was, of course, Ty Lee giggling.

"Hey! Don't pay attention to them. You'll only be hurting yourself." Zuko warned, successfully to turn around.

To Be Continued...

* * *

I know a lot of people expected the therapy session to be in this chapter, but writing a therapy session requires some study, which I will do in some time later. Also, there's a list of people I would like thank/credit who helped me with this chapter. First and foremost, I would like to thank my friend Rona who helped me write the lamppost scene, my friend Shannon who helped me with numerous scenes, and my friend Emily who helped me during my writer's block. :D LOVE YA!

-zkjanie


	4. Chapter 4

* * *

Disclaimer: I own nothing...except this plot

Well, this is it. The chapter that I've been _kinda_ dreading to write...and not really for the reasons you might think. It's cuz of the therapy thing...I'm not a therapist nor do I have any therapy-ish knowledge...so if y'all see any bad therapy-ish schtuff (that's right, SCHTUFF) in this chapter, I would like to apologize in advance. ^^

Enjoy!

* * *

"_Ahahaha! That's awesome Jet." a voice from across the room giggled. Hearing the sound of Jet's name instantly made Katara turn around. But when she did, she immediately regretted it seeing as how it was, of course, Ty Lee giggling._

"_Hey! Don't pay attention to them. You'll only be hurting yourself." Zuko warned, successfully to turn around._

Obediently, Katara turned back to face him and Katara randomly started chatting about the latest gossip that was currently the only topic of conversation going around in Ba Sing Se High as Zuko modestly nodded from time to time. But just as Zuko was about to bring up the topic of Jet from that morning, the waitress, Ji Yi, came over to their table with a tray of tea cups, a pitcher, and a couple of plates with their food. She elegantly set down the tray and placed Zuko and Katara's orders on the table, and finished serving by pouring the pitcher of Uncle Iroh's Famous Jasmine Tea. As Ji Yi turned to leave, Zuko and Katara muttered a quiet "thanks" in unison, which spurred up Ji Yi's jealousy.

With a little green monster in her head, Ji Yi deviced a devious plan and smirked maliciously whilst spying on Zuko sipping his tea and conversing with Katara from the corner of eye. Smirking even wider, Ji Yi walked away little by little and, at the right time, purposely tripped over her own two feet and pretended to black out. But as she was expecting her back to fall onto the cold tiles mounted to the floor, she heard the crashing sound of a teacup and a pair of muscular arms caught her instead.

"Joo Dee! When's Katara's next shift?" Aang curiously asked, sounding like a little kid.

"Well, let's see, Aang..." Joo Dee said, looking at her watch, "her next shift's in about half an hour. You and Toph can go wait outside for her if you want."

"Alright!" Aang yelled with a big goofy grin splattered on his face and dragged Toph outside with him. "Come on Toph, let's go!"

"Great." Toph muttered.

* * *

Cautiously opening her eyes, Ji Yi looked up to see Zuko facing her and thought to herself, _Haha! I knew it!! _

Looking back at the table, Ji Yi saw Katara staring at her as if she was pissed and Ji Yi grinned to herself.

"Wow Zuko! Thanks for catching me!" Ji Yi said in an exaggerated manner, and looked over at Katara who scoffed.

"Uhm, no problem, I guess." Zuko replied and helped her back up and proceeded to it back down. But before he could, Ji Yi started talking again.

"You know, you have really _muscular_ arms." Ji Yi complimented and tried to touch his arms again.

"Um, thank you?"

"Yeah, you know, if you ever wanna call or some-"

"Alright alright! We get it, lady." Katara interrupted, and pushed Ji Yi away from Zuko unconsciously.

"Psh, fine." Ji Yi mumbled under her breath, and when Katara wasn't looking, she quickly held her hand up to her ear in a "Call Me" signal and quickly dashed on back to the kitchen.

"Tch can you believe her? She's so naïve." Katara scoffed and folded her arms and sipped her tea. What she didn't see though, was Zuko's mouth slowly curve into a smirk as he suspected something.

"Katara?"

"Hmm?" Katara looked back up at Zuko with her facial expression back to normal.

"A-Are you jealous?" Zuko asked, trying to emphasize the word 'jealous'.

"What? Why would you think that?" Katara asked back innocently.

"Well, it's just that..."

"What?"

"...Nevermind."

"What? Just say it alrea--"

"Hey waiter-girl! Can you hurry up with our check?! We've been waiting forever!" Ty Lee yelled across the restaurant to Ji Yi, turning all the heads in the shop toward her. Including Katara.

"Hey! Where's our check? We asked you like 10 minutes ago while you were throwing yourself at Zuko!" Ty Lee brutally yelled as Ji Yi walked over to her table with the check in hand.

"Sorry, here." Ji Yi apologized with her hand down and set the check on the table.

"God, seriously. What is wrong with you people and getting things on time?" Ty Lee ranted and threw the money down on the table and stomped her way outside.

"Sorry." Jet muttered as he stood up and gave Ji Yi a tip and chased after Ty Lee outside. With all eyes still on the couple, Katara turned around to see Jet and Ty Lee outside the window arguing about reasons unknown to her. Then out of nowhere, Ty Lee slapped Jet across the face. _Hard_.

"Whoa!" Katara silently chirped. Hearing her sudden outburst, Zuko looked up at Katara and at Jet and Ty Lee outside. Slowly taking a bit of interest in their heated argument, Zuko looked on.

"What the hell was that for?!" Jet yelled violently, referring to Ty Lee's recent bitch-slap.

"'Cause you're being an asshole and fliring with other girls!" she yelled back furiously. Somehow their little conversation about Jet's disappearance to see Katara that morning turned into a heated fight about Jet's "loyalty" to his girlfriend.

"What are you talking about? I'm not flirting with other girls!" Jet defended. That's, of course, when he noticed Katara staring at the two of them behind the glass window. He quickly shoved his hand her way and mouthed the words, 'Go Away.'

Taken aback from Jet's sudden move, Katara suddenly stood up with big widened eyes. Zuko rushed over to the counter to pick up their check and tried to get Katara's attention away from the recent event.

"Hey. Katara? You okay?" Zuko asked and waved a hand in front of her face. "Hello?"

Scoffing, Ty Lee then dragged Jet somewhere else where they would probably just end up fighting some more, slap some more, then eventually come together into a big passionate kiss under the moonlight. Or something of that matter. _Big Whoop_.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. I'm fine." Katara said, finally snapping back to reality. The two of them walked back to Zuko's car and headed off to the Ba Sing Se Kid's Center to drop off Katara.

* * *

Zuko's car slowly drove up to the curve of the Kid's Center and Katara opened her door and stepped outside.

"Thanks Zuko! Good luck with your appointment!" Katara exclaimed and closed the door and Zuko drove off.

"Katara!" A familiar voice rang. Aang, of course, ran up to her and started blabbing about how Katara was 'apparently late' as Toph put her hand over his mouth to stop his insane voice.

"Heh, that's nice Aang. Have you two seen Joo Dee? I have to talk to her about something." Katara asked, putting her name tag on.

"Yeah. We just saw her in the hall." Toph explained, pointing back at the Center.

* * *

Zuko's car pulled up into the driveway of Dr. Wu's Building and parked near a shady area.

"Now let's see...9th Floor, Room 903, Dr. Wu's Office." Zuko sighed and casually walked into the building. Heading for the elevator, he looked around to see what kind of people were in the building, hoping not to be the only person who needed therapy.

He strolled into the elevator by himself and pushed the #9 button and patiently waited for the elevator to bring itself up to his floor.

_Ding! _The elevator doors slid open, and Zuko walked out to see many people, namely, many kids, sitting with their parents on the benches. Cringing, Zuko quickly sat down on a chair furthest away from the group of kids. Trying not to look at the six and seven year olds awaiting for their appoinment, Zuko couldn't help but notice a little boy running across the hall.

"Lee! Get back here right now!" a man yelled.

"Lee, do as your father says!" another woman asked. It seemed like the man and woman was the little boy, 'Lee' 's parents.

Somehow, this little scene brought back sudden flashbacks to Zuko about his childhood and made Zuko's face cringe even more.

"Zuko? It's time for your appointment." announced the assistant, Meng.

_Pretty young for an assistant to a therapist..._Zuko thought and walked in through the door for this appointment.

"Ah, Zuko, is it?" Dr. Wu asked calmly whilst sitting behind the desk in the secluded room.

"Yeah." Zuko replied, shutting the door behind him.

"Good. Please, take a seat." Dr. Wu instructed, gesturing her hand toward the chair.

"So now what?"

"Well...let's begin with what brought you here?"

"I don't know. My uncle just told me the other day to come here today." Zuko casually explained, sounding rather bored.

"I see..." Dr. Wu jotted down some notes about Zuko's behavior onto her clipboard. "So then, is there anything you would like to talk about?"

"..." Zuko shrugged.

"Well, I have here that your uncle said that you might have some sort of anger management problem?"

"What? Psh...are you kidding me? I don't have no anger management problem." Zuko bluffed. "Who told you that?"

"Your uncle."

"Well...w-what does he know."

"Anyway, did anything ever happen to you that might have caused his anger problem?" Dr. Wu asked.

"I just told you! I don't have an anger problem!" Zuko yelled, hypocritically losing his temper.

"..." Dr. Wu simply gave Zuko an "you know that's not true" face.

"Alright fine. So maybe I have a _small tiny _anger problem." Zuko confessed. "But so what?"

"Well, did anything ever happen to you that might have triggered this problem? Like, a rough childhood? Or perhaps a family problem? Or a _girl_ problem?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I know this might be personal...but would this probably have anything to do with that scar of yours?"

"..." Zuko remained silent and looked out the window thoughtfully.

"I see." Dr. Wu jotted down some notes onto her clipboard again. "Well, seeing as how you're not really willing to talk, let's start with your relationship with your family members. How's your relationship with your father?"

"Neh. It's fine I guess."

"Well, you don't seem too enthusiastic about it. Did something happen between you two?"

"Not really...except that he's the one who gave me this stupid scar." Zuko muttered.

"I'm sorrry, I didn't hear that. What did you say?"

"He gave me the scar." Zuko said just a tad bit louder.

"What?" Dr. Wu asked once more, this time holding her hand to her ear.

"My dad gave me this scar!" Zuko yelled, finally lose his patience.

"What?! Why?" Dr. Wu gasped then curiously asked.

Sighing, Zuko decided to actually open up and talk about his problems, _I mean, it's not like it'll be bad or anything..._

"You're not gonna tell this to anyone are you?" Zuko asked, to make sure his dilemma wouldn't be shared with anyone.

"Of course not! It's my professional code not to tell anyone what happens in this room." Dr. Wu stated with her right hand up in the air.

"Well, it was when I was 13 years old..."

"_Hmm, I wonder when you're father will be home." Ursa asked._

"_Yeah, it'd be bad if anything bad happened to him." Zuko replied, while playing cards with his sister, which is unusually odd._

_SLAM! Ozai finally came home and immediately headed for his room, but was soon stopped by his wife._

"_Hey dad! Where were you? How come you smell so bad? Are you drunk, dad?"_

"_Stop asking me so many damn questions!" Ozai yelled back._

"_Come on dad. What's going on? " Zuko kept on asking._

"_I said stop with the questions!" Ozai yelled furiously, sounding even more drunk than ever, and pushed his son against the door, and his eye hit the door knob. _

"_Zuko!" Ursa yelled, and quickly ran over to his son and tried to her son's bruised eye. _

"_Ugh." Ozai groaned and headed back to his room._

"_Azula?! What are you doing? Aren't you gonna help your brother?" Ursa asked._

"_Um...nah. Too lazy." Azula yawned and went into her room._

"_It's okay mom, I'm fine." Zuko said._

"_Are you sure? What your father did was completely uncalled for." Ursa said and rubbed an ice pack against Zuko's eye. "I swear, honey, I am going to have a serious talk with your father. Go to bed now and keep the ice pack on your eye."_

"_Okay mom."_

"And so I went to bed. But then, the next morning, my mom was gone." Zuko explained.

"Just like that?" Dr. Wu asked, trying desperately to hold back tears.

"Yeah." Zuko replied forlornly.

"I see. How sad." Dr. Wu said and wrote down some more notes onto her clipboard. "But do you know what happened between your mom and your dad?"

"Well..."

"_Where's mom?" Zuko asked, with a serious voice as he stomped outside where his father was._

"_..." Ozai plainly shuffled with the paper in his hand._

"_Where's mom?!" Zuko asked, losing his temper. Then finally, he got his answer. Ozai through the paper at Zuko. It turned out that the paper was Ursa's letter to them before she ran away._

_Dear Zuko, _

_I know that you might think that I might have committed suicide _

_or something of that matter. But I assure you, my son, it's nothing like that._

_Your father and I just had a small fight, and I needed some time alone._

_But I just want you to know that I love you very much and that hopefully_

_sometime in the future, I might be able to see you again._

_You musn't forget me,_

_Your mother_

"See, at the time, my mom and dad had been going through some very rough patches. And I guess they've been arguing that night and so...yeah." Zuko finished explaining.

"I see. Now, how's your relationship with your sister. Azula, was it?" Dr. Wu asked.

"Well, ever since I was little, my little sister was almost just like my dad. She kept on bossing me around and yelling at me all the time. She's basically like a sadist to me and to everyone else."

"I see. So do you two live with your father?"

"Pfft. No. My dad's back in our home country, trying to take over other companies and stuff. So right now, so I just live with Azula."

"I see. Well, from what you told me about your relationship with Azula, it must be a bit sad to live with her."

"You don't even know. Like, last night, I yelled at her for beind rude to me, and then somehow she hung me up onto this lamppost and locked me out."

"She...hung you up onto a lamppost?" Dr. Wu asked curiously with a confused look on her face.

"Yeah...but it's okay I guess. My friend Katara helped me down." Zuko sighed, reminiscing about what had happened.

"Katara?" Dr. Wu jotted down her name.

"Yeah. Katara's my best friend. She lives next door." Zuko said.

* * *

"Bye guys!" Katara waved to Aang and Toph as she took off her name tag and waited outside the center. Taking a quick glance at her watch, Katara simply sighed, "God. Where's Sokka? He promised he'd pick me up today!"

_Vroom Vroom!_

The distant rawring of a motorcycle engine echoed through the empty streets near the Ba Sing Se Kid's Center, and the mysterious figure with his girlfriend sitting behind him drove up to the parkway. When the guy removed his helmet, an oh so familiar face was revealed and as the girl sitting behind him removed _her_ helmet, Katara simply cringed with disgust. It was none other than Jet and Ty Lee.

"Alright, you better hurry up Jet. Or else I'm gonna leave by myself." Ty Lee exclaimed as Jet casually strolled his way toward the Kid's Center entrance. On the way though, Jet slipped his hands into his pocket and nodded his head at Katara, smirking the entire time.

With a shocked look upon her face, KAtara's deep blue eyes quickly widened, _But...I though he..._

"Well well well, if it isn't Miss-Flirts-A-Lot." Ty Lee hummed as she got up from her position leaning against the motorcycle and walked over to where Katara was sitting.

"Huh, I see you and Jet made up again." Katara said, ignoring Ty Lee's little remark there.

"Tch, I guess." Ty Lee shrugged.

"Hmm, let me guess, you dragged him off somewhere and started arguing more and came together into a big romantic kiss right?" Katara exclaimed, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Neh, something like that."

"Che." Katara scoffed.

"So, I here you were flirting with my boyfriend this morning." Ty Lee suddenly questioned.

"What?" Katara asked back, suddenly recalling Jet's unexpected detour to her house that morning. "Whoever told you that?"

"Mai." Ty Lee simply said, pulling out a nail file from her purse.

"But how would she have..."

_Tapping her foot impatiently, Katara waited near the lamp post from last night. As she began to remember the event that took place last night, the distant sound of a motorcycle engine running was heard._

_Wanting to know who it was, Katara stood up and squinted t the distant figure heading toward her. Almost immediately, the motorcycle came to a complete halt in front of her and the figure cooly removed his helmet to reveal someone none other than Jet. Of course._

"_Hey Katara." Jet smirked._

"_...Oh, h-hi Jet! Wow, that's a great ride you have there.!" Katara gasped, with big curious eyes._

"_Yeah, finished fixing her up last month." he bragged._

"_That's so cool!" Katara exclaimed._

"_Alright Katara. I'm ready. Let's..." Zuko started to say as he locked his front door. But as soon as he turned around and saw Jet with Katara, Zuko's facial expression turned cold and serious as a small green monster within him started to emerge. "...go."_

"_Yo." Jet waved, putting on his helmet again._

"_Well, um, bye Jet! Let's go Zuko." Katara said, already being able to tell the awkward atmosphere between the three of them, and pushed Zuko toward his car. Little did Katara know that someone, Mai, was spying on them from Azula's window back at Zuko's house. As she pushed however, Zuko stared sternly at Jet, who was currently riding off down the street. _

"Shit." Katara muttered.

"Yeah, 'shit' is right. I swear, if you ever talk, flirt, or even look at my Jet again—"

"Hey Katara! Sorry I'm late!" Sokka yelled from his car as he pulled up the driveway.

"I'm sorry, you were saying?" Katara asked Ty Lee as she opened the car door.

"Grr...forget it. But you're dead if you ever screw with him." Ty Lee threatened and stomped off with her nose in the air.

"What was that all about?" Sokka asked curiously.

"I don't know. I think she's crazy." Katara joked. "Let's go."

"HAHAHAHA. That's funny." Sokka laughed whole heartedly and drove home.

"So why were you late?" Katara asked.

"Suki and I went to see a movie. But then after it finished, they showed, like, extended scenes and stuff."

"I see."

"Hey, how come you never use your car anymore?" Sokka asked, looking at his gas level.

"I dunno, I just don't feel like it. Besides, Zuko's always offering to drive me places, so it's no big deal. Plus it saves gas." Katara shrugged.

"You know, I think he likes you."

"What? What makes you say that?" Katara asked, blushing only a little bit.

"Well, you said he's always offering to drive you. And you two are, like, always together so..."

"Are you kidding me? Me and Zuko are just friends."

"Okay...whatever you say."

* * *

_The next day_...

"_So I'm guessing you like your friend Katara." Dr. Wu guessed._

"_What? What makes you say that?" Zuko asked, suddenly bringing his head up from his crouched position._

"_Well, from all you've said about her, I think you do."_

"God, what does she know. You know, maybe I'm just really really really good friends with Katara. Just 'cause I'm always with her doesn't mean I like her." Zuko reassured himself as he got out of the lunch line. But as he turned around, he saw Katara and Ty Lee talking near the lockers. But from the sounds of it, it was more of an argument.

"I really don't get you. Why are you tryin' to steal my man? I mean, you already have Zuko crawlin' all over you." Ty Lee yelled from the lockers.

"What the hell are you talking about? Zuko and I are just FRIENDS." Katara emphasized, her hands slowly clenching into a fist. Zuko, seeing Katara's fist, quickly ran over to the two of them to try to prevent Katara from doing anything bad.

"Psh, whatever, just stay away from my--" Ty Lee warned again.

"Hey guys, what are you talking about?" Zuko interrupted.

To be continued...

* * *

FINALLY!! I'm done with this chapter!! This took almost my entire weekend to finish and it's 12 PAGES ON MS WORD!!! Now, THAT's an accomplishment. :D

Also, this time, there's a number of people I would like to thank/credit who helped me with this incredibly long chapter:

My friend Erica, Gina, Kaitlin, Cheyenne, Liese, Shannon, Sara, and Rona. THANKS!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D

R'n'R


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing…except this plot…

A/N: Did y'all hear about the New Casting List of Actors and Actresses for the Live Action Avatar Movie? M. Night Shyamalan should REALLY reconsider his list, and hopefully, get a better list.

And I'm just saying this to warn you guys in advance, this chapter has a lot of characters being a bit OOC, but please just bear with me. It just doesn't work without some of the characters being OOC.

* * *

"_Psh, whatever, just stay away from my--" Ty Lee warned again._

"_Hey guys, what are you talking about?" Zuko interrupted, just in the nick of time. _

Ty lee rolled her eyes, well what do you know, it's your boyfriend."

Sighing, Katara replied, "He's not my boyfriend."

"Hmph, well whatever, Jet's here so I'm gonna get going. And _you_, Katara, I'm watching you." And with that, Ty Lee smoothly tramped her way to Jet's side as he walked into the cafeteria.

"So…uh, what exactly were you two chatting about?" asked Zuko, whilst walking with Katara back into the currently crowded cafeteria.

Katara grabbed the plastic tray as she walked into the lunch line and reassured, "It was nothing. She's just trying way too hard to try to piss me off. No big deal."

"Huh. I see."

"Yeah. She has this ridiculous notion that I'm trying 'steal her man' and a bunch of other crap like that." Katara grabbed a muffin.

"That's so…pathetic?"

"Yeah, tell me about it." Replied Katara, who was completely oblivious to the fact that Zuko wasn't really paying attention. She grabbed a seat at one of the lunch tables. "Oh yeah! You had your appointment yesterday! How'd it go?"

"Ugh. I'd rather not talk about it. I'll just tell you later. But let me just say right now, it was really mostly just me ranting and the lady listening."

Katara shrugged, "Alright then."

Out of nowhere, the irritating ringing of the school bell echoed amongst the busy hallways, signaling the end of lunch.

"Wow, that certainly was a short lunch time." Katara stated, getting up from her seat and disposed of the leftover food sitting on her tray.

"Yeah, I know. There's really something wrong with the bell schedule now."

* * *

"Alright class, now remember, I'm gonna be gone for the next two weeks. So you all better listen to the substitute!" Mr. Tyro explained to his boredom-struck class. Looking at the clock on the wall reading '2:58', Mr. Tyro began speaking once more. "Since I'm feeling quite generous today, you kids can go early today. Go on, get outta here!"

"YES!!" Immediately, all the teen-aged students pushed and shoved their way toward the tiny door. Eventually, they all were able to emerge out of the room and they went their separate ways.

"Can you _believe_ that Mr. Tyro is FINALLY gonna be gone for a full two weeks?!" exclaimed Katara, who enthusiastically displayed her joy of Mr. Tyro's to-be-absence.

Zuko pressed his hand against the 'Walk Button' at the end of the sidewalk on the pole. "Yeah, let's just hope the substitute won't be as bad as Mr. Tyro is."

As the stoplight blinked green, Zuko and Katara began to cross the unusually long intersection.

"Oh yeah! That reminds me! You didn't tell me about your appointment. Spill." Katara suddenly remembered.

"Oh, um. It was…normal…"

"Seriously _Zu-Zu_, tell me! What happened?"

"…fine. Basically all the lady did, was say that I have some stupid anger problem and then she started asking me questions about my 'dysfunctional' family."

"Ah. I see. So what'd you say?" asked Katara.

"Nothing really."

The distant sound of honking echoed throughout the empty neighborhood.

"I just simply told her the story of my mom and-- KATARA! WATCH OUT!"

The distant honking came from a big truck. And it was coming straight for Katara!

So incredibly overwhelmed with shock, Katara froze in place, just staring wide-eyed at the bright lights of the large vehicle blinking at her as the distance between her and the truck narrowed.

Only being able to think Katara's safety and well being, Zuko ran straight to Katara with wide-open arms. And before he knew it, he and Katara were tumbling down the street as the two were able to narrowly escape what could have been a very tragic accident.

"Oh my god! That was so close!" Zuko gasped and turned his head toward the truck that was now at the end of the street. "Katara? You okay?"

Katara snapped back into reality and lifted her head from the ground. "Whoa. What's going on?" She said and looked around with a dazed splattered across her face.

Zuko got up off the ground and dusted himself off and lent out a hand to Katara. "A truck came straight for you! Why didn't you do anything?"

"Ah. Sorry. I guess I was just…a bit flustered, or shocked."

"Well thank god you're okay now. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks for, um, saving me." A sudden wave of realization showered over Katara.

"Well, if I didn't, you would probably be dead or something by no--"Katara tackled Zuko into a massive bear hug. So taken aback by Katara's sudden motion, Zuko lost his balance and almost fell over. _Almost_.

"Oh my god! Thank you! Thank you! I am, like, forever in your debt now. I can really just kiss you right now!" Katara squealed happily, wrapping her arms tightly around Zuko's head.

"Heh, it's fine. It was nothing, really." Zuko blushed.

"Nuh-uh! I owe you big time." insisted Katara.

* * *

"Oh. Hey Ty Lee…" Mai strolled plainly down the empty street, speaking into her phone.

"That Katara -- girl -- all that -- pissing -- off…"

"What? I can't hear you." Mai turned the corner.

Then out of nowhere, the sudden sound of something dropping to the cement floor of the sidewalk filled Mai's ears for she dropped her phone when she laid her eyes on the sight in front of her. Her usual monotonous expression slowly cringed into shock, jealousy, and surprisingly, more shock. Her typical glum looking lips shaped into an 'O' as her jaws dropped. Her unenthusiastic eyes, too, widened increasingly.

_"Well, if I didn't, you would probably be dead or something by no--"Katara tackled Zuko into a massive bear hug. So taken aback by Katara's sudden motion, Zuko lost his balance and almost fell over. Almost. _

_"Oh my god! Thank you! Thank you! I am, like, forever in your debt now. I can really just kiss you right now!" Katara squealed happily, wrapping her arms tightly around Zuko's head._

_"Heh, it's fine. It was nothing, really." Zuko blushed._

_"Nuh-uh! I owe you big time." insisted Katara. _

Mai slowly bent down and picked up her screwed up phone and escaped toward the opposite direction, and to her house.

* * *

Dropping her bag onto the floor, Katara exhaustedly threw herself onto the bed. She sighed. "What a long day…"

What seemed like silence throughout the two story house was soon quickly disturbed with the distant and familiar ringing of the house phone.

"Sokka! Get the phone!"

It rang again.

"Katara~" Sokka whined from downstairs. "Can you get it? I'm busy!"

"Busy with what?!"

"Just…stuff! Can't you please just get the phone before we miss it?"

"Argh…fine!" Katara let out small groan and walked out into the hall and grabbed the small phone.

"Hello?"

"Oh, hey Katara. Hi!" It was Suki.

"Hey Suki. You want me to get Sokka for ya?"

"Oh, nah. It's fine. I originally called to talk with you…um, is this like, a bad time?"

"What? No, of course not. What'd you wanna talk about?" Katara strolled back into her room and sat down at her desk chair.

"You wanna go to mall tomorrow? After school? You know, like a girl's day out kind of thing?" Suki randomly brought up.

"Um, yeah sure. But, why all of a sudden?"

"No reason. Just felt that we haven't really went out for a girl's day in a while, and plus, I have some stuff to talk to you about and yeah…"

"Oh, I see. Alright then. Mall it is."

"Awesome. See you tomorrow. Oh! And don't tell Sokka about this."

"'Kay then. See you." Katara placed the phone on her desk. _Huh. What would she want to talk about that's so important that she has to keep it a secret from even Sokka?"_

* * *

"It's fine Mai. It's probably nothing. Just leave it alone." Azula suggested over the phone.

"But…" whined Mai, for the first time. Ever.

"Get a hold of yourself Mai. What's wrong with you? Don't lose yourself over my pathetic excuse of a brother." Azula said harshly and hung up, leaving a forlorn Mai alone by herself.

Deciding that calling Azula _again_ would be a pretty unwise decision, Mai dialed in Ty Lee's number and held up the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" Ty Lee's voice shot through.

"Hi Ty Lee."

"Hi Mai! What's up?"

"How do I get Zuko's attention?" Mai asked abruptly, obviously trying to avoid the awkward small talk.

"Huh? Why do you ask all of a sudden?"

"That Katara girl's keep hogging Zuko all to herself, and it's really pissing me off."

"Yeah I know! She's keep trying to get my Jet too!"

"Yeah, which is why I called. So how do I get Zuko?"

"Well, why don't you just get rid of Katara instead? It's faster, easier, and simply better for everyone."

"No, because then Zuko's still gonna be all over her."

"Oh yeah. I forgot. But wait…don't you have that tutor thing with him?"

"Of course! How could I have forgotten?" Mai exclaimed with obvious relief. "Thanks Ty Lee. See you later."

"Sure, um, whatever you say." Ty Lee replied and hung up.

"I can just schedule more tutor time with Zuko so that way, he'll be with me all the time and not her!" Mai cackled quietly to herself.

* * *

_The next day…_

Katara walked outside her house and carefully locked the door behind her.

"--Hey! You goin' someplace?" Zuko hollered from his bedroom window.

"Oh, hi Zuko! Since when are you up so early?" Katara waved with a big smile.

"I rise with the sun remember?" joked Zuko.

"Uh huh."

"So where you goin'?"

"Mall. Meeting Suki there." Katara explained and opened up her car door.

"Oh, I see…Um, then…have fun!"

"Thanks. See ya later." Katara called out and slammed her car door.

Katara pulled out of the driveway and into the main street and proceeded out of the neighborhood and into the intersection. After driving for about five minutes, Katara arrived at the Ba Sing Se Center Mall.

"Hey! Katara! Over here!" Suki called from the entrance.

"Oh, hey Suki!" Katara ran toward her after locking her car.

"So, where do you wanna hit first?"

"Um, let's go get some shoes!"

* * *

"Wow, that was the longest shopping spree I've ever been on." Katara threw herself onto one of the chairs in the smoothie shop. Suki trailed into the shop after her and set down her half of the bags next to the table.

"Yeah, I know. My feet hurt like crazy. And I'm really thirsty. You want anything?" Suki abruptly stood up from her chair and got out her wallet for at least the thirtieth time that day.

"Um, sure. Can you get me a Mango Smoothie?"

"You sure you don't want the Papaya Mix? It tastes pretty good."

"Yeah. I hate papaya."

"Okay. Be right back." Suki skipped over to the intensely long line.

* * *

"So, Duke. Anything goin' on wit' you and Toph?" Smellerbee asked The Duke.

"_The _Duke! And no, not really, not yet. BUT! Hopefully, she'll find out what an awesome guy I am, and like me one day…well, I'm gonna try my best to pull off that impression at least." The Duke stomped his foot as he, Jet, Smellerbee, Longshot, and Pipsqueek strolled as a gang down the crowded hall of the mall.

"Uh huh. Yeah, well. Good luck with that The Duke." Jet replied, trying his best to calm the little boy down.

"Well, Jet. You're really popular. And you get lots of girls. What's your secret?" squeaked the Duke.

"What do you mean? There's no secret. They just come to me."

"I'm sure…Oh look! There's Katara. Why isn't she coming crawling over to you?" Smellerbee cut into the conversation and pointed her finer at Katara around the corner.

"Huh…I'm not sure…"

"Exactly. So what's your real secr--. H-Hey Jet! Where you goin'?" The Duke called out to Jet, who was currently coolly making his way to Katara's table.

"Heeey Katara. 'Sup." Jet leaned onto the small table and held out the chair opposite from Katara. "Is this seat taken?"

"…I dunno. That depends."

"Alright then. Jet simply stated and took a seat across from her." Jet looked down at the floor next to the table and spotted the assortment of colors coming from the many shopping bags. "I'm guessing you're here with someone?"

"And what would make you think that?"

"Well, there' no possible way you could've bought all this stuff by yourself. I mean, come on."

"…what's that supposed to mean?" Katara sounded serious.

"Just…never mind." Jet shook his head slightly. "So, uh, I saw you talking with Ty Lee at lunch yesterday. Any specific reason?"

"Oh, no. We were just chatting about random girl stuff."

"Uh huh. I see. Well then, that's…nice."

"Yes, I know. It's very nice."

"Okay well, my friends are over there…So I'm just gonna head back now." And with that, Jet exited the shop.

"You do that.' muttered Katara, who was trying to look as high and mighty as ever. As soon as he was out of sight, however, she slammed her head against the table and groaned noticeably.

"Okay, I am back with your Mango, not papaya, smoothie. I swear, that line took forever." Suki quickly dashed over to the table and carefully set down the colorful smoothies. That was when she finally took notice of Katara's position. "Hey, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

"What?" Katara quickly raised her head up again. "Oh, nope. Nothing happened."

"Uh huh. Then why did that Jet kid stop by a few moments ago?" Suki crossed her arms with some suspicions.

"Alright fine. While you were gone, you know, in line, Jet just totally popped up out of nowhere and just sat down. And then he kept asking me questions about my fight with Ty Lee yesterday and stuff." Katara explained in one breath.

"That's nothing!"

"Which is exactly what I've been trying to say!"

"Yeah. So that story of yours isn't explaining why you were groaning just now though." Suki looked more suspicious now. "You're not telling me everything. Spill."

­_Sigh_. "Fine. But you can't tell Sokka."

"Fine. Now tell me already."

"Okay…I was groaning because I made a huge fool of myself in front of Jet!"

"Psh, so? What does that matter? It's not like you have some sort of crush on him, right?"

"…" Katara looked away.

"Oh my god. You do like him!" Suki squealed in delight. That is, until she realized what she actually said. "Oh…my…god. You like Je--mmm?!"

Katara quickly reached over the table and shoved her tan colored hand over Suki's mouth to shut her up. "Shush!"

"Alright. Sorry. But…" Suki leaned in over the table. "…you like him?"

"Well…yeah. I guess. I don't know."

"Huh. This is gonna be a hard secret to keep."

"You can't tell anyone. Especially Sokka. He'd freak out."

"Yeah, I know." Suki said. A devilish look suddenly appeared on her face. "But now, it's time to dish out more. Have you ever tried anything to, like, get his attention or whatever?"

"Who? Jet?"

"Of course Jet! Who else?"

"Well, not really."

"Why not? It certainly seems like he's kind of interested in you."

"Tch. I doubt that."

"Hmm, well we all know he has a girlfriend. But…have you ever tried making him jealous to get his attention?"

"Jealous? No. It never crossed my mind."

"Ah. Well, do you wanna hear how?" Suki asked, with a devious glint in her eye.

"If it works, then why not?"

"Alright then. This is something that usually works. Well, sometimes." Suki stated and whispered to Katara her master plan.

Katara gasped. "No. Way. Seriously? Do I really have to do that?"

"If you want this to work."

After pondering about Suki's 'sure fire' plan for some time, Katara finally gave in. "Alright. I'll _try_ it."

"Excellent."

_To be continued_…

* * *

And the cliffhangers are back! Wow. This was a long and hard chapter to write. (10 pages on Word) And yet, this page has like no significant importance compared to the rest of the story that I've planned. What's gonna be harder though is to write the next chapter, which will be Suki's plan for Katara. BUT, I know for sure, I'll enjoy writing it. xD

Also, for the little scene where Mai's talking with Ty Lee over the phone where Mai's witnessing the Zuko save Katara then Katara glomp Zuko scene, the one where Ty Lee's like, "--girl--pissing--off" and stuff, she's not swearing or anything, it's just bad connection.

Lastly, I'd like to thank a number of people, again, for helping me on this chapter: Emily( :D :D :D), Rona (:D :D :D), and Erica (:D :D :D feel better!)

-zkjanie


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing...except this plot.

* * *

_After pondering about Suki's 'sure fire' plan for some time, Katara finally gave in. "Alright. I'll __**try**__ it."_

"_Excellent."_

"...but wouldn't that be using him though?"

"No. Of course not! Don't even think of it that way! Besides, however you do it, it'll still be good for both of you!"

"Are you…implying something?"

"I'm just saying that it'd be good for you since you get to get Jet jealous, and Zuko will be able to...let's just say, _enjoy the moment_." Suki added extra emphasis to her last three words.

"...what's that supposed to mean?"

"No, it's just that, with him liking you and all, it'll be good for him too."Suki took a sip of her smoothie.

"..." Katara, with confusion and suspicion written across her tan face, simply looked on.

"Don't tell me you don't know about Zuko's crush on you. I mean really, it's quite obvious."

"Uh huh...And you do know that those rumors are just out to annoy people right? Besides, he and I are just friends."

"Well…whatever you say."

* * *

"Ha! I beat you! Now I'm winning!"

"That...was just luck, Smellerbee." Jet reassured, gripping his game control tighter, and fixed his eyes onto the TV screen.

_Ring! Ring! Ring!_

"Hey, Jet. Your phone's ringing." announced Longshot from the kitchen.

"Oh, god. Alright. Pause the game. I'll be right back." Jet set down his game control on the floor and walked over to the kitchen to fetch his phone. "Hello?"

"Hi. This is Mr. Kao from Ba Sing Se High. Is a student named Jet there?" a grouchy voice asked.

"Uh, yeah. Hi. This is Jet."

"Oh, hello Jet. I'm just going to get straight to the point here. Basically, the reason why I called is to tell you that your grades are falling. And unless you bring up your grades by the end of the semester, I'm afraid you won't be able to graduate this year."

"Whoa. Wait. I'm failing?!"

"Yes, I'm quite certain I've already made that pretty clear."

"And I have to repeat 12th Grade?!" Panic rushed to Jet's voice.

"If you don't bring up your grades up, that is."

"O-Okay. Will do. But...how? I mean, how am I supposed to get enough points to graduate?"

"Ah, well, I might be able to assign you a student tutor, if that'll possibly help. You'll find out who your tutor will be tomorrow after class."

"Good. That's great. Thanks." The panic in Jet's voice was suddenly replaced with relief as he hung up the phone. He sulked back into the living room and slumped onto his couch.

"Hey—who was it?" Smellerbee asked, looking back at Jet and to the TV Screen ever so occasionally.

"Mr. Kao."

"Ew. Why?"

"Said I have to bring up my grade."

"Oh. I see." Smellerbee whipped his head back to the TV to focus on her game.

"...yeah." whispered Jet.

* * *

"So...anyway, what exactly was it that you wanted to talk about that you mentioned yesterday? Or was it that whole Zuko thing?" Katara drank a sip of her mango smoothie.

"Mm! Oh yeah. About that. Well, um, I-I'm not sure how I should say it."

"Just say it already."

"Alright. So, you know that new girl Yue?"

"You mean that new foreign exchange student that just came from, like, up North?"

"Yeah."

"Well, what about her?"

"Well, I can't believe I'm saying this," Suki muttered. "but I think she and Sokka might have something going on together."

"What? Are you kidding me? Sokka? The cheating type? I seriously doubt it."

"Well, I thought that too, at first. But then like, she's always around him now, and it's really pissing me off."

"Alright, alright. I'll ask Sokka about her later."

"Awesome. Thanks."

* * *

"Hey! Sokka! I'm home!" Katara hollered out as she let herself in through the front doors of her house.

"Oh hi! I'll be right there. Just hold on a sec." Katara's brother yelled back from the kitchen.

"Okay. I'll be in my room then."

"No wait! I'm done now. I want you to meet someone."

"Huh? Who?" Out of the kitchen door, emerged Sokka in a blue apron. Next to him though, was none other than...Yue.

"Oh...hi...Yue. W-What are you doing here?" Katara hesitantly asked, trying her best to give her best grin.

"I invited her over. That okay with you?" Sokka asked, setting the dining table.

"Uh, um, sure...I-I guess." stuttered Katara.

"--Hi! You must be Katara! My name is Yue."

"Katara whipped her head over to the side to see Yue, but before she knew it, her hand was suddenly tackled into a rabid handshake.

"Oh! Hehe..." Katara exclaimed. "Hey."

"Sokka told me so much about you!"

"Hey guys! Dinner's ready! This is only my second time cooking. Ever. So just bear the taste with me."

"Katara quickly stepped out to the side and narrowly escaped the awkward atmosphere between her and the light-haired transfer. She dashed over to the dining table and claimed her seat.

"You know, I think you and Yue could actually be pretty cool friends." Sokka suggested, stuffing his mouth with countless amounts of food.

"Of course!" Yue exclaimed happily.

Katara, on the other hand, simply muttered, "Yeah...I doubt that."

* * *

"Well, it is getting pretty late. I guess I better be going now. Bye Sokka. Thanks for the dinner. Bye Katara!" Yue waved and headed out the door.

"Bye Yue! Be careful!" Sokka hollered out the door as Yue's leaving silhouette slowly faded into the night. Sokka then shut the door and was about to make his way back upstairs. That is, until he bumped into Katara, who folded her arms with a suspicious look upon her face.

"What?" Sokka asked cluelessly.

"Why'd you invite her over in the first place?"

"Because I was being polite? Why else would I invite her over?"

"I don't know! But you have a girlfriend! Why would you have another girl over for dinner?--" Katara paused. "Are you cheating on Suki?"

"What?! Why would I cheat on Suki? What kind of person do you think I am?" Sokka yelled out.

"Then why'd you invite Yue?" asked Katara calmly.

"Because Pakku asked me to! Are you happy now?"

"Pakku? But...why?"

"A few days ago, Pakku called me and said that his friend Chief Arnook has a daughter named Yue that was going to transfer to our school, and he asked me to help her around since she's new." Sokka sighed.

"And that's it, right? Nothing else?"

"Of course."

"Well then why didn't you just say so?" Katara exclaimed in relief. "You got me and Suki worried over nothing!"

"Suki?"

"Yeah, she got all worried and a bit jealous because you and Yue were keep hanging around each other."

"Well then why didn't she just come and talk to me about it?" Sokka's eyes narrowed.

"I don't know." Katara yawned. "I gotta start on my homework now. See ya."

* * *

_The next day_...

"Hey Zuko! Wait up!" Mai called out as she tried to catch up to Zuko in the hall.

"Oh. Hi Mai. What's up?" Zuko greeted.

"Hey. I'll, uh, just get straight to the point here. Basically, my parents are keep bugging me about re-starting the tutor lessons. Can you do it?"

"Uh, sure, I guess. Why not? When?"

"Anytime is fine. I guess." muttered Mai, who subtly looked down to the side as she blushed.

"Oh. Hey, I'll be right back." Zuko told Mai as he spotted Katara and Suki coming down the opposite hallway, and he started walking toward them.

* * *

"Hey, are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" asked Katara.

Suki scoffed, "…to get Jet jealous!"

"Well, I said I'd try it. But why are you bringing that up now?"

"Well…" Suki turned around and pointed at Jet who was currently walking down the side hallway and to Zuko who was strolling his way over from the opposite side. "Both Jet **and** Zuko are walking this way! What better time to do this than now?"

Katara panicked. She frantically looked back and forth from Jet to Zuko over and over.

"Well come on!" Suki nudged Katara.

"–Hey Katara!" Zuko's distant voice called out as he walked closer. Katara's head turned to face Zuko, then quickly turned to face Jet, who too was coming toward her.

"Just go!" Suki whispered loudly and quickly gave Katara a hard push forward.

"Hey!" Katara grunted out loud before she ended up bumping into Zuko.

"Whoa. You okay?"

"Um…yeah. Thanks." Katara hastily turned around to face Suki.

Suki mouthed, "Hurry up! Jet's looking at you!" Instantly, Katara looked at Jet. Catching Katara's glimpse at him, Jet subtly sent Katara a small grin.

Panicking, Katara looked back and forth from Zuko to Jet to Suki and back to Zuko. And before she knew it…

BAM! Katara swiftly wrapped her tan arms around Zuko's head and slowly closed in the small gap between them as she let her lips meet his. Zuko's golden eyes widened noticeably, but as a few seconds past, his eyelids slowly came to a close just as Katara cracked open one eye and looked around at Jet to see if he was looking. Unfortunately, he wasn't. Instead, he was too busy chatting with Ty Lee. Feeling a bit disappointed, Katara wanted to fall to the floor. That is, until she realized the situation that she was currently in. Katara gasped to herself a little bit, but soon found herself getting into the kiss.

_

* * *

_

"Can't believe he just ditched me right now for that Katara girl." Mai ranted to herself as she viewed Zuko walking towards Katara. She walked down the wide hallway, but came to a sudden halt as she saw a shocking event happening right before her eyes. Right down the hall, was Zuko. And Katara. Kissing. In front of the whole world to see.

* * *

Almost the entire student body was cluttered around the halls as they watched Zuko and Katara still going at it. Fortunately, the crowd was soon broken up as the bell rang for the end of lunch and the start of the next period. As soon as the two heard the loud ringing, they immediately separated in embarrassment, their faces both red as a tomato. They stood there awkwardly until most of the students swarming around them were gone. By the time that happened, though, the awkward atmosphere between Zuko and Katara had been inconveniently unbearable

"..Ahem." Zuko cleared his throat as he uncomfortably scratched the back of his head. Katara, on the other hand, simply clasped her hands in front of her and stared at her feet. "U-uhm, I-I'm gonna get to class now."

"Y-Yeah. M-me too. See ya." Katara replied hesitantly, and the two went their separate ways to their classes.

* * *

"Alright class. You're dismissed." Mr. Kao announced just minutes before the 4th bell rang. "Except Katara and Jet. Can you two stay in for a second?"

All the students rushed their way out the door, and Katara, Jet, and Mr. Kao were the only ones left in the quiet room.

Oh my god, am I in trouble or something? Breathe, Katara. Just act cool. Katara flung her backpack over her shoulder and walked over to Mr. Kao's desk in the back of the room along with Jet.

"Yes?" Katara asked.

"Hello Katara. Jet's been having some problems with his academics in class. If he doesn't get a good grade for this semester, he might have to repeat the grade. I know it might come with some pressure, but could you possibly help him to get better grades? Like a tutor?" Mr. Kao asked in a straightforward manner.

"Tutor?" Katara stood there, looking at Jet for a second. A few seconds later, she replied, "Um, sure. Why not?"

Jet smirked.

"Good. That's very good." Mr. Kao smiled. "You two can set up a time and place to meet or something of a schedule for tutoring sessions."

"Well…I guess getting your grades up as a fast as possible is the first priority…so I guess we can meet sometime tomorrow after school. Where?" Katara said, pausing from time to time.

"There's a coffee place around the corner. We can meet there." Insisted Jet.

"Um…sure." Katara hesitantly agreed.

_To be continue..._

_--_

I have a confession to make. I REALLY procrastinated on this chapter. And I'm really truly sorry about that. But it's mostly because, you know, it was the holidays and all and plus the kiss scene was really hard to write...Also. HAPPY 2009! I know it's a bit late, but better late than never. ^^

CREDITS: Lots of people I can't seem to remember, but recently, my new editor LSH (no actual beta name yet, so that's what they're gonna be called for now)

R'n'R

-zkjanie


	7. Chapter 7

* * *

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

* * *

_Sleep_

Katara wandered around…from hallway to staircase…to bathroom to bed. Letting out an exhausted yawn, she lifted the covers and slipped onto her bed. Her tan eyelids slowly came to a close as the bright moonlight reflected through the glass windows and wrapped everything in sight.

But no sleep came; that is, until a very long gruesome hour passed and her insomnia had slowly begun to fade away.

_Katara swiftly wrapped her tan arms around Zuko's head and slowly closed in the small gap between them as she let her lips meet his. Zuko's golden eyes widened noticeably, but as a few seconds past, his eyelids slowly came to a close just as Katara cracked open one eye and looked around at Jet to see if he was looking. Unfortunately, he wasn't. Instead, he was too busy chatting with Ty Lee. Feeling a bit disappointed, Katara wanted to fall to the floor. That is, until she realized the situation that she was currently in. Katara gasped to herself a little bit, but soon found herself getting into the kiss._

Her eyes popped open and revealed her bloodshot eyes wide open. "God, why am I keep thinking about that stupid kiss?!"

_Because you liked it, duh!_

"What? No I don't! I panicked and I had no choice!" Katara replied aggressively.

_Oh get real Katara. You did have a choice and __**you're**__the one who decided to kiss him. Nobody forced you._

"That's not true! Suki was pressuring me, Jet was walking over to me, and Zuko was right there!" whined Katara.

_Huh, well, maybe you made an unconscious decision to kiss him then, hehe_.

"…and why would I 'unconsciously' do tha--"

"Katara! Go to sleep and stop talking to yourself!" Sokka yelled from across the hall. Katara glared toward Sokka's direction from the corner of eye before resuming her argument.

"Ahem, anyway, _why_ would I unconsciously do that? I have no reason to!" she exclaimed in a hushed tone.

_You're in denial. You love him! And you __**know**__ you loved his 'luscious lips'!_

Katara could practically hear her conscious' evil laugh. Just as she was about to give a remark to her conscious' previous accusation, the flashback replayed in her head once more.

_Katara swiftly wrapped her tan arms around Zuko's head and slowly closed in the small gap between them as she let her lips meet his. Zuko's golden eyes widened noticeably, but as a few seconds past, his eyelids slowly came to a close just as Katara cracked open one eye and looked around at Jet to see if he was looking. Unfortunately, he wasn't. Instead, he was too busy chatting with Ty Lee. Feeling a bit disappointed, Katara wanted to fall to the floor. That is, until she realized the situation that she was currently in. Katara gasped to herself a little bit, but soon found herself getting into the kiss._

A small tint of red crawled up to her cheeks. She began to give in to what her inner voice had sad when she took a hold of reality and slapped herself across the face.

--

Meanwhile, across the street, Zuko too had trouble falling asleep. His black disheveled hair covered his forehead as he stretched his pale arms under his head. He groaned in frustration and lifted the heavy covers off of him as he stood up and began to pacing around his room. For about five rather long minutes, he repeatedly stomped around, rubbing his head in confusion and desperation.

"What is your problem Zuzu?!" Azula's dictator-like voice pierced through his room as she slammed open the door with sheer anger. "Why can't you just go to sleep peacefully like everybody else in the world and try not to ruin my beauty sleep?!"

Zuko scoffed, "No need to yell. I was just thinking about some things." Azula turned around to leave.

"Well, as a word of advice brother, if it's about Katara, then you probably _like_ her. Nobody, especially someone like you would pace around their room unless some war erupted or a girl invaded their mind. Besides, you two are practically inseparable. Quite repulsing, really." She explained, shutting the door behind her as she left. "And go to bed!"

Zuko grunted as he walked back to his bed.

_You know, Azula's right. You like her! It's obvious. _

"We're just friends." Zuko closed his eyes.

_Then you kissed her back because?_

"W-well, I…I don't know. I mean, it's not like I didn't like it or anything, just…why would she do that? She knows we're just friends, and I know we're just friends." He muttered. "At least I think."

_Are you sure?_

"Well, I just, I thought she liked Jet. After all her constant talking and subtle flirting with him, it's pretty obvious." His eyes wandered to the balcony.

_Hmm, maybe she likes you. Who knows, you guys might both secretly like each other and not even know it!_

Zuko chuckled silently to himself. "…you never know…" and he drifted off to sleep with a small grin on his face.

--

The bell rang for lunch and the students surfaced from the doors of countless classrooms lined up along the hallways. Katara, however, decided to stay behind for a few particular reasons. She walked over to Zuko's fourth period classroom and waited for him to come out. Five minutes passed and Katara started to give up on waiting for him. _Maybe he already came out_? But just as Katara was about to turn and head to the cafeteria like the rest of the hungry student body, the light green door swung open and out walked Zuko…with Mai.

"H-hey Zuko, can I see you for a second?" Katara asked awkwardly. She greeted Mai with a small 'hello'. Mai just blinked.

"Yeah, sure." Zuko replied, then turned to Mai, "So I'll see you at your place?"

"Yeah." Mai said and walked away, her black exterior fading down the hallway as she headed to the cafeteria. Zuko turned to face his best friend; an awkward smile splattered on his clashed with a Katara's narrowed eyes. "What?"

"Explain." Katara exclaimed expectantly, momentarily forgetting her purpose.

"It's nothing. She just asked me to tutor her so we had to set up a time and place. That's all." Zuko explained, "So, um, what'd you want to talk to me about?"

Katara, still a bit unsure of herself, grabbed his arm and walked him over to a more secluded area of the hallway. As they walked past the hordes of fellow peers, numerous eyes and whispers of gossip enclosed them. "Okay, well um, I just wanted to kind of set things a bit straight here about the, um, what happened yesterday…between us." She stuttered, desperately trying to avoid Zuko's eye contact. "Remember?"

"Oh, uh, yeah…that. I remember." He replied. "Wh-what about it?"

"Well, um, I'm just gonna come out and say it." She looked to Zuko for some sort of response, but his blank expression didn't faze. She sighed and took a deep breath, "Okay, well, a few days ago, Suki told me something."

"Okay…"

"Well, um, you know that I have this…erm, not really a crush but…an attraction to Jet right?" Katara asked; Zuko nodded. "Okay, well, anyway, Suki suggested that, you know, to get Jet jealous, that I should kiss…you, in front of him." She looked down at her feet, not wanting to see how Zuko would react after having told him that his platonic best friend practically used him to her advantage.

"O-oh." _Well, that's a load off. -.-_

"B-but I completely swear Zuko, I swear I didn't even want to do it! Even ask Suki! It's just that, yesterday, Suki was keep forcing me to do it, and Jet was walking over to me, and you just happened to be standing right there and I…"

"…panicked. " Zuko finished her off. _Great. She doesn't like me; she just used me to get some other guy jealous. No wonder._ "I-It's okay. I figured it was that anyway. Haha."

"Oh! Thank god! You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that. I was seriously freaking out so much last night going crazy about it." Katara exclaimed loudly with a big sigh of relief. After calming down, she reached over to give Zuko a friendly hug. "Thanks soooo much for understanding. I really hope it doesn't, you know, change our relationship in any way."

"What? Oh, no of course it won't! That kiss meant nothing to me!" Zuko laughed nervously.

"Haha, yeah! Me…neither." Katara agreed. _Well, so much for going crazy over it all night_ _if he thought it was nothing…_

--

_In these eyes_

_More than words_

_More than anything that I've spoken_

_As the skies turned to gray _

_My heart's just about to crack open_

_So the story goes_

_There's something you should know_

_Before I walk away _

_and I blow the ending…_

Katara hummed along with the tune whilst twiddling through her iPod. _God, where is he? He was supposed to show up half an hour ago! I bet he'll just end up fooling around. _

As soon as school had ended that day, Katara had rushed over to her car and took a bus to the small coffee shop 25 blocks from the school and took the closest table near the window. Just as she was about to reach in her bag for her phone, the waiter came by her table…again.

"Would you like to do order _now?_" he asked, in the same monotonous tone similar to Mai's. Katara looked around the coffee shop as well as out the window to find if he was gonna come in anytime soon. She didn't see him. "Uhh, actually, I'll just leave now. Thanks."

Katara packed up her things, left a tip for the waiter considering how long he'd been waiting for her to order, and started to head toward the door. She wiggled herself through numerous people hussling and bussling through the small shop to get to their destination. After minutes of trying to get through, Katara finally made it to the door, pushed the doors open, then…

"Ah! Watch it!" a familiar voice shouted, holding up his nose.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I totally didn't see you there—wait, Jet?" she eyed him suspiciously.

"Oh hi! Sorry I'm late." Jet said suavely and headed over to the table Katara was previously at. Annoyed by his lack of punctuality and common sense, she trailed after and sat down across from him.

"Uh, hello? Care to explain_ why_ you were so late and had me waiting here for 30 minutes?" Katara said.

"Anything to order?" he asked.

"Um, a large coffee. You?" Jet looked to Katara, whose face was undeniably quite ridiculous at the moment. Jet stifled a laugh.

"What? Oh, nothing." She responded and the waiter left. "Now, back to the subject. Why were you late? I'm on a tight schedule here, you know."

"Okay, okay, calm down. I just...had a family thing to take care of." He replied, a small flashback hitting his mind. "Y-yeah, that's right. A family thing."

_The bell rang and the students filed out and ran out to the courtyard and to the parking lot. Pushing past the countless fellow students in front of him, Jet, however, was forced to stay behind due to Mr. Tyro. Eventually, he casually strolled over to his car at the back of the parking lot behind the school. _

"_Hey Jet!" Ty Lee hollered and ran over to Jet. She jumped him in a small hug. "Hey babe, how about you--"_

"_Sorry, Ty Lee, can't talk. Gotta go somewhere." Jet removed her arms from around his neck and proceeded to open his car door. Confused, Ty Lee slammed the door shut._

"_Where?"she furrowed her brow and stared directly into Jet's brown eyes for a response._

"…_just someplace. I have to go see someone about something." He avoided her eye contact._

"_Are you going to see Katara?" she seemed pissed._

"…" _No response. Ty Lee, now more angry than ever, stomped on his foot and stalked away. _

"Hello? Jet? Are you still here?" Katara waved a hand in front of his zombie-like face. Jet fell out of his trance and shook his head.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Let's just get studying!" Jet exclaimed and took out several textbooks from his backpack.

--

_Ding dong!_

Zuko pressed his finger to the brass colored doorbell on the side of the doorway. He stepped back a couple steps and sighed in awe. The mansion was huge. It was a casual eggshell color, highlighted by several splashes of gold and brown. _This is definitely far from anything I've been in for about 15 years!_ He thought. Back when he was little and still lived with his parents, he used to live in a house just like that, if not more extravagant. But that was before.

The door clicked and swung open and there stood Mai, with her signature bored and impassive face. She gestured to him to come in. Zuko quickly brushed off his shoes and stepped into the glorious house. He almost completely forgot she was the Governor's daughter.

"Well, this is pretty much it." She uttered and headed toward the stairs across the living room. Zuko, on the other hand, took his time to freely wander around the vast house, taking in everything in sight. There were…pictures everywhere of Mai and her family, and in every one of them, Mai looked bored and lackluster. Out of nowhere, a woman, probably Mai's mother, rushed out of the kitchen with a delighted smile on her face.

"Oh! You must be Zuko! I've heard so much about you!" she beamed and set down the little boy in her arms. "Well, if you need anything, I'm right downstairs!"

Zuko smiled awkwardly and nervously and quickly headed up the stairs to Mai's room. Her room was…so much different from downstairs. The maroon colored walls set up a rather mysterious aura to her room; the light fixtures on the ceilings were very dim and the room itself was neat and tidy. No pictures in sight.

"Well, this is my room. I guess you can set your things down over there." She pointed to the little chair next to her desk. He did and sat down on where Mai was, on her bed.

"Okay, well, um, I guess we can start with Ch. 7…" Zuko said and flipped to a page in his textbook as Mai flipped through hers.

--

_1 hour later_…

"Well, that pretty much wraps up our tutoring session for today. Good job!" Katara cheered and closed her textbook. Katara laughed at her previous thought that Jet would only be a nuisance when it came to teaching him.

Jet soon closed his book as well and chuckled slightly. He looked down at his watch. '4:37' "Well, I guess we have some time." He sipped his coffee.

"Yeah, I guess we do…um, do have any questions or whatnot about like our tutoring schedule or whatever?" she replied to rid the awkward air.

"Let's not talk about tutoring. I've had way too much school stuff in my head for one day and I think I might explode." Jet smirked, "So…I hear you and that Lee guy is finally goin' out?"

Katara cleared her throat, "His name's not Lee; it's Zuko and that's just a rumor. That kiss totally didn't mean anything! He and I are just friends anyway."

Jet raised an eyebrow and laughed. "Oh-ho! So you guys kissed huh?"

"Well, it was an accident. Nothing to worry about."

"Hmm, do tell." So Katara explained everything. Of course except how it was all to get him jealous. Instead, she managed to make him believe that she did it by accidentally tripping over someone's foot and somehow landed on Zuko.

_Her naiveté is so amusing! I already saw what happened. What's she trying to make it up for?_ Jet mused, and then looked to his watch already. "It's getting late. We should probably head out."

Katara agreed, grabbed her stuff, paid for the coffee, and headed out the door with Jet. The familiar smell of fresh rain hit her nose. She looked around and saw people rushing to get under cover from the rain falling on them. Katara opened her mouth to speak, but Jet quickly interrupted her before she even began.

"Wha-What the hell? Is that Ty Lee?" Jet exclaimed in disbelief. Across the street from them were Ty Lee and some other guy. He looked to be several years older than her; most likely in college. "U-um, you can walk home right?"

'Oh yeah! Of course I can walk the 25 blocks home by myself in the pouring rain! No problem! You go ahead and be with your girl despite the fact that I'm here all by myself!' she wanted to say. But she just couldn't bring herself to. Instead, all that escaped her lips were "Um, sure.

"'Kay awesome. I'll see you soon. Bye!" Jet saluted and ran across the street to straighten things out with Ty Lee and the other guy. And Katara just stared. She had no ride, no one to pick her up, and no bus fee. She had no choice but to do exactly as Jet said and _walk_ the 25 blocks back home in the pouring rain.

--

"…and so I ended up eating about 25 fruit tarts that day." Mai laughed, which was quite unusual. Zuko was amazed.

"It's nice to hear you laugh. You rarely ever have any other emotion on your face other than 'I'm bored'" Zuko complimented. How they went from studying math and science to fruit tarts, he would never know, but he was glad he did.

"It's true though. I had to stuff all those little fruit tarts in my mouth just so my mom wouldn't find me sneaking them in…" she calmed herself down. "…and I'm not _always_ bored-looking am I? I mean, it's just, I guess I've been like that since God knows when, so it's like I do it without even knowing."

"Well, you should try opening up yourself more. You're more relatable this way too. Well, I better get going; it's getting pretty late." Zuko got off from her bed and headed downstairs with his backpack. He said a small "goodbye" to Mai's mom and headed out the door and to his car. He drove through the community gates and to the main road, which had been cluttered due to the traffic. "Ugh, I hate traffic." He muttered to himself when he spotted someone walking by herself on the sidewalk. She was wearing fitted black jeans with a light blue T-shirt. Her brown hair was dripping wet and her tan skin was dotted with droplets of water and goose bumps. He sped up a little ahead of her and realized who it was and came to a halt.

"Hey Katara!" Zuko rolled down the passenger seat window and hollered. "It's raining and you're dripping wet!"

"Oh, hey Zuko." Katara faced him.

"Need a ride?" Katara nodded and squeezed the water in her hair out before getting into Zuko's black Porsche.

To be continued…

* * *

I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY UBER SUPER sorry I haven't updated in a long time. I'm so ashamed of myself .

BUT! I've been looking past my other chapters and I'm really proud of myself comparing this chapter to the other ones.

ALSO, as a side note, I didn't really like writing this chapter (which is probably why I took forever to write it); it's basically just a chapter to move the story along

R'n'R

-zkjanie

(P.S. I don't own the song "Now You Know")


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

* * *

2 months later…

"…maybe I should ask him out?" Katara muttered. She walked past numerous people, most of which had been talking about certain rumors that was circulating about her and Jet. Looks of jealousy came at her in all directions, but unfortunately, Katara was still too consumed in mumbling things to herself. In just a matter of minutes, she finally arrived at her locker. She replaced the heavy calculus and English book from her bag with her old-fashioned home-made lunch from her locker. All while doing so, countless thoughts on how to further develop her friendship with Jet ran in her mind.

She slammed her locker shut and breathed, "Well, it has been two months and we've gotten a LOT closer already…maybe he even lik—"

"Boo!" A familiar voice laughed out loud and Katara yelped loudly and jumped at least a foot into the air. Angrily, she spun around to see who it was that had randomly decided to poke her sides to death. But once she saw their face, Katara's face expression relaxed significantly.

Suki, laughing her head off, wiped away a tear from her laughter.

"What the hell?" Katara furrowed her brow and slapped her friend's arm.

"What? Come on, it was funny! I couldn't help myself!" Suki cracked up and opened her own locker, which coincidentally was only a couple lockers down from Katara's.

"I swear, you're turning into Sokka. I think you've been hanging out with him too much." Katara leaned her back against the locker.

Suki took out a small mirror and reapplied her makeup and replied, "Touche" Well, its still better than talking things to myself."

Katara faced Suki with her eyebrows high on her face. "What makes you say that?"

"The fact that you were mumbling things to yourself tells me exactly that." She responded. "So?"

Katara gave up. "Well, let's see. I've been tutoring Jet every week for the past two months now and we got, like, a lot closer, but I don't know if it could be more, especially with Ty Lee hanging around him all the time…but at the same time, he's been really friendly to me and, and….and you're not listening to a word I'm saying, are you?" Katara, rolling her eyes, groaned as she saw her friend's distracted look on her face.

"…no I am not." She blurted dreamily, "BUT! What I do know is that the water polo team has practice today. They're so hot…"

The two started heading toward the cafeteria as Katara replied, "So? I still have my problem with Jet."

Suki scoffed, "Ugh, so…they're gonna be out practicing today at the pool right aferschool!"

"Wait a minute, isn't Sokka on the team?"

"Yup, so is you little crush." Suki amused. Katara simply grimaced at the thought of her own bother, her _immature_ brother, as some hot muscular guy when she soon realized what the other thing Suki said was.

"Jet's on the team too?"

"Yeah, you didn't know?" But before Suki knew it, Katara was at least 6 paces ahead of her and quickly headed to the cafeteria. Suki just shrugged and went off to look for her beau.

Katara, on the other hand, was already now in the cafeteria and she observed the cramped room for a certain someone. Once she spotted him, she calmly, and totally not anxious at all to talk to him, walked over to his table, which was crowded with him and his friends.

* * *

"So when are you going to break up with Ty Lee? Aren't you sick of her yet?" Longshot spoke quietly.

"Well, so, about that, I'm trying to find a way to break it down for her easily, you know, so that I won't get brutally, not to mention, publicly, embarrassed by her," Jet admitted, digging into his plate of fries when he spotted someone walking towards him.

"So, I'm guessing Katara's gonna be your new girlfriend once, if you ever, dump Ty Lee." Smellerbee gathered.

However, Jet ignored Smellerbee; something else was already in his mind. He knew the only reason Katara would be walking over to him probably was most likely going to be about their tutor sessions. In hopes to avoid his friends from finding out that he was stupid and needed a tutor, Jet smirked and devised a quick plan. "Um, I'll be right back. Just a sec."

He broadly walked over to meet Katara. "Hey Katara!" he greeted and put his big arm around her small shoulders.

Feeling just a tad awkward, she sensed something was going on and replied, "Um, hi. Look, I have someth—"

"I want you to meet some of my friends." Jet offered abruptly and led her to his table.

Taken aback, she replied, "Wait--, but—"

Jet waved a gesturing hand to Longshot and Smellerbee and introduced the three teenagers to one another. However, the three of them said in a scrambled unison, "We've already met, a long time ago."

_Wow, this is not awkward at all…_ Katara chuckled a bit and said hi to the two, and vice versa. After a few moments of dead silence between the four of them, Katara finally decided to speak up.

"Ahem, well, it's been great being introduced to you guys for the second time, but I need to talk to Jet privately for a second. Sorry!"

Jet managed to get out a few incoherent grumbles before finally being dragged everywhere by his tutor, immediately drawing curious eyes to them.

Soon they came to a stop and Katara looked at him. "You're in water polo right?"

Jet feebly nodded.

"Okay, well, I heard you guys have practice right after school today. I just wanted to have some sort of schedule or something so we can make up for your missed session today."

Jet's eyes widened a bit and he gasped, "Oh yeah! I totally forgot. Thanks for reminding me."

"Um, no problem." Katara blushed a little and cleared her throat. "So when are you free, any time for me is fine."

He took some time to collect his thoughts and simply suggested that because he wasnt sure of what days he would be free, that she can just show up at his practice by the pool and have little tutor meets during his breaks. _Tch, what a stupid suggestion. _

Surprisingly enough though, she reluctantly agreed.

* * *

"So where are you going afterschool?" Zuko nonchalantly asked Katara as they left their classroom.

"Um, well, yeah, actually, I have to go to the school pool. Jet has practice and I need to teach him" she said. Zuko slowed down a bit. "What?" Katara noticed and came to a halt. "What's wrong?"

"You do know he's still going out with Ty Lee right?" he cautioned.

"Yeah I know. It's just tutoring. Nothing else." She said.

Zuko turned and looked her concernedly. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah…of course." She reassured as they neared the pool gate. "Thanks for walking me over. See you later."

"Wai—okay, I'll see you soon." Zuko hesitated and left Katara at the pool and headed home.

Katara pushed open the metal gate and walked in, only to be faced with a surprise. The place was completely empty and vacant. No hot, muscular guy, or any other human being, was in sight.

_I guess I showed up a little early._ She sat down on a nearby lawn chair. As she was getting settled in, she heard a little splash.

She stood up from the chair and stepped forward to the pool for observation. Like some hot lifeguard, an unidentifiable tan guy emerged somewhat gracefully out of the blue water. Katara tried, but couldn't turn her eyes away. The guy's brown hair whipped back and revealed his face.

"Oh, it's you Jet!" Katara sighed of relief, her heart beat pounding violently against her chest. Jet chuckled lightly and flipped over to float on his back.

Katara paused for a second but cracked and chuckled as well. "So, uh, where's everyone else?"

"They ditched" Jet grinned with his eyes closed. "It's sort of a tradition; ditching first day of practice."

"Heh, I see. That would explain a lot." She replied, feeling a little silly. "Then how come you're here?"

"Just, uh, wanted to relax a bit and do some swimming."

"I see"

* * *

"…and just remember my fake formula, and I assure you, you won't fail." Katara concluded. "And that marks the end of our session for today."

"Awesome, awesome. Good session." Jet nodded and stood from the lawn chair next to Katara's and leaped into the pool. "Well, now that we're done with that, wanna go for a swim?"

"Um, as much as I LOVE swimming, I don't really feel like drenching my clothes today in cold water." She smiled.

"Suit yourself." Jet said. He saw Katara getting ready and idea popped into his mind and a smirk formed on his face. "Hey Katara, can you come here for a second? I have to tell you something."

Katara chirped, "Sure." She set down her bag and crouched down near the end of the pool to meet Jet. She looked at him expectedly, but go a blank stare from him..

After a quick pause of virtually nothing, he whispered, "Closer."

And so she did, and it didn't take long for Katara to notice that their faces were only a few inches apart and she felt a little heat rising in her cheeks. _What's he doing? Is he going to…kiss me or something?_ Katara gasped silently in her head. _Nah. Don't get your hopes up Katara._

Jet leaned in just a tad bit closer and whispered into Katara's ear, the heat from his breath sending shivers all throughout her body. "You know, I never really liked Ty Lee." And before Katara was even able to process what he had just said, he grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her into the pool. He laughed wholeheartedly as Katara burst out of the water, her face as angry as a bull. But as soon as she saw and heard her crush laughing, she couldn't help but laugh at the situation, and yelled, "It's not funny!"

"Haha, yes it is." Jet joked and splashed Katara lightly. She scoffed innocently and splashed him back, to which he retaliated again. It was like time had stopped as they playfully sprayed water on each other.

"What's this?" a female voice interrupted. The two in the pool came to an immediate halt and turned to the direction of the voice. Their eyes widened suddenly as they saw Ty Lee standing at the gate, her expression surprisingly mysterious. At that point, Jet and Katara, unfortunately, both knew that something horrible in the near future would happen as a result.

Ty Lee had expected at least some sort of an answer from her boyfriend, or even the tramp that was with him, but received none. Fed up, she stormed out angrily. Jet quickly looked back and forth between Katara and Ty Lee's exit. He and Katara had tons of fun, but at the same time, Ty Lee was still his girlfriend, despite what he had just told Katara. _Do I go after Ty Lee, or stay with Katara?_

After a moment of panic, he ultimately pulled himself out of the pool and ran after Ty Lee, while not even uttering a word to the girl he had just abandoned.

"Of course" Katara whispered to herself and pulled herself out of the water with a disappointed and forlorn look on her face. All while she was thought Jet had changed and might like her, he was still the same, always catering to Ty Lee and her needs.

That day, Katara walked home cold, drenched, and alone.

* * *

"Hey Zuko!" Katara hollered from the edge of her balcony. Considering it was already night time, she tried to refrain from yelling loudly too much. After a few seconds, Zuko finally showed up.

"Hey, how'd your thing with Jet go?"

"Yeah, about that, you mind if I come over for a bit?" I'm bored and I need to talk to somebody now." She said and was already climbing over her balcony.

"Sure. Go ahead." He replied and took her hand to help her catch her balance as she jumped onto his balcony, and they went into his room.

Katara dusted herself off and looked around Zuko's room. The walls were painted a moderate shade of red. His bed was simply and neatly made. Over his headboard though, was a pair of expensive-looking swords that crossed each other like an 'X'. On his desk were the laptop and a large pile of papers, probably his homework. To the right of his desk was a dresser, with a couple of unlit candles along with pictures of his mom, his uncle, a family photo, and a photo gift that Katara gave him for his tenth fifteenth birthday of the two of them together at an amusement park during their freshmen year. Katara smiled remembering that day. Overall though, his room was simply and neat.

"Your room hasn't changed one bit." She mentioned and lay down on his bed. Zuko grunted a little and sat down in front of his laptop.

"You still didn't answer my question you know." He said, typing furiously.

"Oh, right, well, where should I start? Basically…" Katara said. She explained to him everything about how it was only her and Jet there and that after they finished, they were close enough to kiss and that he said he didn't like Ty Lee and also that he pulled her in and Ty Lee saw them together …and how Jet ditched her for Ty Lee.

"Seriously?" Zuko said and turned around in his chair to face Katara. "I feel tempted to say I told you so."

Katara closed her eyes and let out a groan. "Please don't. I already feel like an idiot. I feel so tired of being his…doormat. Maybe I should just confess and ask him out myself."

And that's where Zuko had mentally drawn the line. If she actually asks him out and he says yes, then that would ruin his and Katara's relationship from going anywhere. His train of thought, however, was soon interrupted.

"Oh, wait, I forgot you don't like him." Katara spoke up and looked at Zuko for a response. Zuko tried to tell her not to ask him out, but looking into her beautiful blue eyes, he just could not bring himself to restrict her from achieving the happiness she wanted all because he happened to be a little jealous.

Finally, he replied, "Look Katara, you're my best friend, and I want you to be happy. And if that jerk does that for you…" Zuko looked at Katara again. Her face had brightened up a bit when he started to sound like he was approving.

"…then, go for it." He finished, but added a side note, "but if he hurts you in any way at all, I'm going to kick his ass."

"Thanks so much Zuko! I love you!" Katara squealed in delight and attacked him in a big bear hug. He was taken aback from her sudden action, but slowly, he wrapped his arms around her and returned the hug.

After they finished, Katara leapt back to her house for dinner. Zuko watched her go and once she was gone, he threw himself onto his bed and groaned. He glimpsed at the clock on his wall. It was nearing 5, meaning it was time to go over to Mai's for their own tutor session.

* * *

The next day, once again, Katara strolled the halls, her mind deep in thought.

"Hey Jet, there's this new movie out and I was wondering if you wanted to maybe watch it with me?" she whispered to herself so that no gossiping bystander would catch on. After thinking of at least six different ways to ask him out, she finally settled with this one and was satisfied. All she had to do now was look for him to be alone and, obviously, ask him out. And frankly, she was nervous out of her mind.

"Ugh, where is he?" she walked around for at least 10 minutes, and still was unable to find him. She walked down the stairs to the first floor and finally caught a glimpse of Jet at the end of the stairs.

A smile formed on her face and she called out to him. Somehow, he couldn't hear her and kept walking around a corner. Frustrated, she followed him. She rounded the corner and was about to call him again, but became too dumfounded by what she came face to face with.

There Jet was, leaning toward some lockers, making out with Ty Lee. Again. Although shocked, she caught her jaw from dropping and instead, disappointment overtook her as she stood in place staring at the couple.

But then, Jet pulled away from the kiss and saw Katara looking at him and Ty Lee. And instead of a look of sympathy and guilt like Katara had expected from him, Jet furrowed his bros and looked pissed off. He sneered, "Still stalking me, bitch? Why not just take a picture? It'll last longer."

Immediately, Katara gasped as she widened her eyes and her tears were threatening to overspill.

"Haha, good one." Ty Lee added evilly and the two collided their lips with each other again. Katara felt her tears flow down her cheeks and she quickly lowered her head and walked past them. As she passed them, Jet peeked open an eye and looked at her leaving until she was out of view and earshot. As soon as she disappeared, he rapidly separated from Ty Lee and stared at her in the eyeballs.

Feeling defeated and angry, he asked, "Happy now?"

Ty Lee smirked amusedly and began to play with his collar before she pulled him down to her eye level and whispered evilly into his ear, "Absolutely." She let go of him and, full of pride and satisfaction, walked away with her nose in the air.

Jet still stood there with his back slouched, his hands down at his sides and his head cocked back as he faced Katara's direction, guilt written all over his face. "Damn it!" he growled furiously and punched the lockers before storming away.

To be continued…

* * *

Wow, okay so, again, general message:

Really really really sorry in not updating in forever, but like always, writer's block and lack of motivation's a bitch. xD

But, I have to say, so far, this was perhaps my favorite chapter to write so far, but only because, for this one, the ideas just came coming and coming to me. So yeah! xD

But, I'm so freakishly happy to get this chapter done and over with cuz now I can move on with the story so that the Zutara can FINALLY emerge!

But til then, au revoir!

-zkjanie


	9. Chapter 9 Part 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

I know what you're all thinking, "SHE FINALLY UPDATED!!!"

Hehehe...

* * *

_Where is she?_ Jet thought to himself. While still somehow managing to look calm and collected without drawing attention to himself or unconsciously gathering fangirls, he inspected the halls carefully for her. From the little incident that morning. Jet just felt pretty horrible and disappointed with himself, not to mention regretful. How his manly pride had reduced down to being forced to carry out stupid orders and commands by his so-called girlfriend, he would never know. But, right now, all that consumed his thoughts was that he had to look for the girl he had hurt and to apologize to her. He dashed around the corner and spotted Sokka and Suki.

"'Ey Sokka!" Jet called out and walked over. "Have you seen your sister?"

The two males may have been on the same team and all, but Sokka had always hated Jet since the day they first met, and even more since the day he found out that his _baby sister_ was infatuated with his aloof teammate. Sokka eyed Jet suspiciously, and after a long pause, he finally replied, "Why?"

"Let's just say, I need to talk to her about something" Jet implied. Almost instantly, Sokka took a dangerously close step toward Jet. "What'd you do to her?"

Despite that they were practically the same height, Sokka looked down on him and squinted his blue eyes.

"Hey, I didn't do anything go her! At least...not on my own will." Jet said, then stared back at him.

Suki looked back and forth between the two and began to feel awkward just standing there while the two boys stared each other down. She grinned nervously, "Okay okay guys, can you please down the testerone here?"

She pushed the two apart and back a couple steps, but their glares remained unfazed. She looked to Sokka, "Calm down Sokka" then turned around to Jet and gave him an answer, "Katara went off campus for lunch with Zuko."

"...Thanks..." Jet said, finally pulling away his glare and looked at her, "...Suki" and left.

* * *

"Welcome to the Jasmine Dragon." a female waitress greeted and led Zuko and Katara to a nearby table. All of a sudden, Zuko wrinkled his nose as he recognized the waitress' voice.

"Um, hi... Ji Yi" Zuko cautiously said, remembering what had happened last time he ran into her with Katara.

_"Wow Zuko! Thanks for catching me!" Ji Yi said in an exaggerated manner, and looked over at Katara who scoffed._

"_Uhm, no problem, I guess." Zuko replied and helped her back up and proceeded to it back down. But before he could, Ji Yi started talking again._

"_You know, you have really __muscular__ arms." Ji Yi complimented and tried to touch his arms again._

"_Um, thank you?"_

"_Yeah, you know, if you ever wanna call or some-"_

"_Alright alright! We get it, lady." Katara interrupted, and pushed Ji Yi away from Zuko unconsciously._

"_Psh, fine." Ji Yi mumbled under her breath, and when Katara wasn't looking, she quickly held her hand up to her ear in a "Call Me" signal and quickly dashed on back to the kitchen._

"_Tch can you believe her? She's so naïve." Katara scoffed and folded her arms and sipped her tea. What she didn't see though, was Zuko's mouth slowly curve into a smirk as he suspected something._

"_Katara?"_

"_Hmm?" Katara looked back up at Zuko with her facial expression back to normal._

"_A-Are you jealous?" Zuko asked, trying to emphasize the word 'jealous'._

"_What? Why would you think that?" Katara asked back innocently._

"_Well, it's just that..."_

"_What"_

"_...Never mind."_

It was not fun. But his train of thought was interrupted by Ji Yi's shrill voice, "Hey Zuko, ahem, Zuko's friend."

Zuko looked over across the table to Katara, in a way expecting her to snap something back at Ji Yi, much like last time.

But...she didn't. She didn't even say anything at all! Immediately, Zuko suspected something was wrong. After all, with Katara being a fairly predictable person, he knew the day she suddenly became unpredictable would be the day that he would know something was going on.

"Um, we'll order something a little later, thanks Ji Yi. And can you tell my uncle I said hi?" Zuko asked with a small gesture of his hands. She furrowed her brows and simply walked away.

Zuko's golden eyes then wandered over to Katara. She was looking down and playing with her fingernails, and her face lacked he usual bright smile she always had on, and her normally lit-up face looked quite pale. Zuko couldn't help but think something was definitely going on. "Katara?"

"..." She didn't look up.

"Katara?" he repeated.

Instantly, Katara raised he head and looked at Zuko wide-eyed. "Huh?"

"Are you okay? You seem...distracted..." he said, a serious look on his face.

"What? ...nothing's wrong..." she replied, avoiding his eye contact, "I'm not distracted."

"Alright, alright..." Zuko backed off. "If you say so."

Katara growled slightly under her breath, "Okay, I'll tell you. I guess I have been feeling a bit distracte--"

"Zuko! Katara! How nice to see my you two again!" Iroh exclaimed with a big smile and made his way to the two. In his hands was a small tray containing two cups and a steaming teapot.

Katara sighed to herself and put on a small grin for the jolly old man. "Hi Iroh, it's great to see you again too."

"Hi uncle. What's that?" Zuko pointed to the teapot his uncle had just set down on their table and took a small whiff. "Mm, it smells good."

"Heh, heh, I knew you would like it, my nephew." Iroh's grin became bigger, " It's my newest tea, this time with a secret ingredient! And I have to say, it's quite delectible!"

"Well, it definitely smells great," Katara closed her eyes and took in the delicious aroma.

"Yeah, thanks uncle," Zuko agreed and poured Katara and himself each a cup.

"Oh, it's my pleasure! Be sure to tell me what you think of it; I'll let you continue with your...date now." Iroh winked slyly at his nephew before heading back into the kitchen.

"Ahem, you'll have to excuse my uncle. You know how he can be." Zuko said, "Um, back to what you were saying..."

"Uh--nah, it was just...nothing" Katara shook her head.

"No, you can tell me Katara" he persuaded, "It's okay."

Katara looked up at her friend for encouragement, and her hesitant blue eyes locked in with Zuko's persistent gold ones. Sighing, she began to slowly explain, "Okay, um, well, this morning...I went to go look for Jet, you know...to ask him out."

"Uh huh," Zuko, even though he, quite reluctantly, had approved her asking that dirtbag out, understandingly nodded.

"Yeah, and I found him in the middle of a make-out session with Ty Lee." Katara felt hot, angry tears well up in her eyes, and muttered under her breath, "That slut."

Zuko listened carefully with concern as he watched the 'like' of his life go through so much anguish, especially if she was breaking down from just explaining what had happened. And from the looks of it, she had yet to tell him the worst part.

"...go on..."

She blinked a couple times to try holding her tears from coming any further. "They saw me staring and Jet, not even Ty Lee, but _Jet _said something to me."

"..." Zuko looked at her intently.

Katara cleared her throat, "He asked if I was still 'stalking him' and called me a bitch..and that I'd be better off just taking a picture...said it'll last longer." She choked back on her tears, but let a single one fall.

She looked at Zuko for a response. Instead, she just found him still looking at her, this time more intensely. She looked down and took her first sip, "Wow, this is really good."

Zuko broke off his gaze and shook his head at her, "I don't believe this... He actually said that?"

Katara feebly nodded, and began playing with her nails again.

Zuko quickly came to a sudden realization. If what Jet said was the cause of all the pain that was shown on Katara's face throughout her explanation, then... "I'm going to kill that bastard."

"But you know,...in a way, I kind of feel like...I saw this coming, from a long time ago." Katara smiled bittersweetly, "I mean, who wouldn't with Ty Lee being his girlfriend."

"But--"

"Maybe Jet was just...way out of my league...and I'm just not worth it." she lowered her head, and another tear slid down her cheek. Abruptly, Zuko stood from his seat, walked around the table to Katara and stood her up. Grabbing her firmly by the arms, he looked at her straight in the eye.

"Katara! You and I **both** know that that's complete platypus-bearshit. If that son of a bird, or any other guy for that matter, can't see the wonderful and beautiful person that you are, then they're the ones that's not worth it." Zuko reassured, wiping Kayara's tears with his thumb, getting lost in her shiny ocean blue irises.

Katara calmed down, a barely noticeable smile appeared on her face.

"And besides, I bet there are a million and six guys out there that are ten times better than that prick. Ones who will treat you better." Zuko said, praying his mind that it'll hopefully lift up spirits, "and they'll make you feel like the most special person in the world."

Katara's smile widened slightly at the thought of someone like that. Her Prince Charming would sweep her off her feet and ride away with her in a royal carriage into the sunset. He'd spread all his time with her and shower her with sweet kisses everyday.

_Like Zuko's a few months ago, huh?_ a little voice in the back of her mind giggled.

What?

_Hey, I'm just saying..._

She stopped listening to the voice and replied, "What if that guy never shows up?"

"He _will_...and for all you know, he could even be at this very shop right now..." Zuko silently gulped, slightly hoping she would catch what he was trying to imply.

"O-Oh..." Katara uttered and the two found themselves unconsciously leaning closer to each other, their faces just mere inches apart.

"...and you might just not know it yet..." Zuko breathed, his hot breath tickled her lips as their eyes both gradually started close...

"So Zuko! Katara! What'd you--" Iroh burst out of the kitchen happily, until he saw what the two teens were in the middle of and his smile was quickly replaced with a sly and devious grin, "--think of my new tea?"

Zuko and Katara swiftly separated from each other, both feeling slightly disappointed, at the sound of Iroh's voice. Heat quickly rushed to both of their cheeks.

"Actually, nevermind. I can come back later. You two can continue..." Iroh whistled innocently.

An uncomfortable silence filled the air between Zuko and Katara until it became simply unbearable, and Zuko decided to break the tension. "Ahem, well, uh, I think lunch is probably over by now. We, we should head back."

"Um, yeah. Let's go." Katara concurred. The two quickly paid the bill and rushed back to Ba Sing Se High. And, as they expected, they were already five minutes late. Without saying a word, they carefully turned the doorknob of their class so they could sneak in without the teacher noticing. They pushed the door open and tip-toed in.

"You two are tardy." Their teacher announced, while writing something on the board. He set the marker down and turned to face the students. Immediately, countless heads turned to look Zuko and Katara. "How peculiar, both of you not only late, but arriving both at the exact time..."

The entire class burst into firs of hushed whispers and giggles. Zuko and Katara quickly muttered an apogu and walked to their designated seats, avoiding any dye contact with their fellow classmates.

* * *

_Why's Zuko keep coming into my head? I don't think of him that way... at least, I don't think I do... But, that little thing that happened between us at the tea shop... _Katara pondered. Walking out of her last class, she headed to the parking lot for Zuko. She unsuccessfully managed to dodge the frantic teens looking for their cars and waited for Zuko. Just then, a big hand landed on her shoulder.

Katara turned around to see who, but her eyes squinted into an angry stare as she furrowed her brows, wrinkled her nose, and slightly frowned.

"Okay, just hear me out. I was looking fir you all day--"

"Just leave me alone," Katara said, trying to keep calm. She would never forgive him of what he said to her.

"But, Katara--"

'Honk! Honk!' "Hey Katara!"

Katara and Jet turned around and saw Zuko in his car waiting for her at the curb. "Come on!"

Katara looked back at Jet and gave him a quick death stare before walking to Zuko's car. Jet's brown eyes looked at her as she walked away from him. From there, his eyes wandered over to Zuko, who was glowering right back at him. Zuko furrowed his brow, as did Jet, before driving away.

* * *

_Still stalking me bitch? Why don't you just take a picture? It'll last longer._

_Ugh, that bastard_ Katara thought, feeling her angry tears coming on once again. Katara rubbed her eyes furiously and slammed her head onto her pillow and let out a long-awaited scream. Before she knew it, she fell into a deep sleep, her tears still upon her face.

In the house next door however, a certain golden-eyed fellow lay on his bed as he tossed his baseball up into the air. All that was going brought his mind was Katara, and their almost kiss earlier that day.

"...with Jet hopefully finally out of the picture, maybe this is my chance." Zuko told himself, and caught the ball, "I need to to take the chance while I still have it."

_Are you sure? What if she's not over him yet...?  
_  
"But, I have this...feeling...that she is. It may have only been a day, but she tends to get over her crushes fairly quickly. Especially when they do horrible things to her, like what Jet did. Then again, she does hold pretty tight grudges." He threw the ball up again.

_But still, you know first hand how unpredictable she can be._

"Alright, I'll give her a week or two. But if I see that she's over him, I'm taking my chances." Zuko caught the ba in his hands and threw it aside as he prepared for sleep. "Just a week."

* * *

_A week later..._

"I gave her a week, and she's not over him. She's gotten so…crushed; she even became a bit depressed!" Zuko explained loudly. "What am I supposed to do uncle?"

"But…didn't you two kiss last time you were here?" Iroh said over the counter, as he prepared some of his special tea.

"Well…we didn't actually _kiss_; it was just something that came out of nowhere, heat of the moment I guess." Zuko said looking at the green tiles on the floor as Iroh came out of the kitchen.

"Hmm, I see. Well, why not try cheering her up? Invite her to a fun day at an amusement park, or maybe have a delightful movie day with her; something with just the two of you together. Perhaps that might cheer her up." Iroh grinned and elbowed his nephew.

"That's so…actually, it doesn't sound that bad." Zuko replied as he began inventing new ideas and ways to bring up Katara's mood. "I'll consider it. Thanks uncle."

"Oh, no problem my troubled nephew." Iroh and Zuko sat down at a nearby table. "By the way, how are your little…uh, tutor, is that what it's called? With that friend of Azula's?"

"Who? Mai?"

Iroh nodded as he took a sip.

"Oh, um, not bad I guess. She's improving a lot."

"Ah, I see."

"Why?"

"Oh, no reason/" Iroh answered quickly. "Well, it seems our time is being cut short." He gestured toward the sudden flow of customers at the door rushing to the counter.

The next morning, a Saturday, Zuko was already wide awake as he cleaned up his living room. After hearing Uncle Iroh's advice, he decided to go with one of his ideas. He looked up at the clock as the big hand hit '8'.

_I don't think she's awake yet, _he thought, but ultimately decided to wake her up anyway. He dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone and texted Katara:

_Hey, what are you doing today? _

Ten minutes later, and his phone vibrated. He pulled it out of his pocket again and chuckled lightly, "About time she woke up."

He opened his phone and read Katara's reply:

_Sleeping in? Maybe some homework later._

Zuko started to type up a reply when he suddenly received another message from her:

_Why? What are you doing?_

Zuko smiled as he had hoped she'd say something like that. Quickly typing up a reply, he clicked send.

At Katara's house, she was busy leaning over her bathroom sink brushing her teeth. On the other side of the counter, her blue cell phone started to ring again. She picked it up diligently after spitting, rinsing, and wiping her wet hands on a towel and looked at the message.

_Me? I'm gonna be enjoying a nice movie marathon with you_.

Katara wrinkled her nose in confusion. A bit taken aback by his sudden proposition and she typed up a response.

_A movie marathon? Why all of a sudden?_

Within seconds, another reply came.

_You'll just have to come over to find out. Come over at around lunchtime. _

Katara agreed. But, somehow, she couldn't shrug off the feeling of curiosity. An hour passed and Katara dialed a number on her phone and put it against her ear. After trying to come up of reasons as to why Zuko would do that, she gave up and decided that she had to discuss it with somebody.

"Ring…ring…Hello?" a female voice greeted.

"Hey Suki, I need your help…it has to do with Zuko." She sighed.

"Okay, wait," Suki said, and came back a few seconds later. "Okay, I've got some popcorn and my soda. Shoot."

"Okay…" Katara exclaimed and explained.

* * *

_Lunchtime…_

Katara stood in her most comfortable sweats and stood outside her neighbor's house. Ringing the doorbell, she waited patiently. She looked around and caught a small glimpse of the curtain behind the window moving a bit. She heard the sound of the door unlock and it swung open. It was Azula.

"Hi…Azula."

"It's you. My dork of a brother spent the entire morning rudely interrupting my beauty sleep trying to groom up this place. Personally, I think--" Azula groggily explained with her arms crossed.

Out of nowhere, a toned arm pushed Azula aside, and greeted Katara happily. "Hey Katara, come on in."

Katara smiled sweetly and stepped in as Zuko gestured her inside. Azula was right; it was much neater than the last time she was there.

"Trust me 'tara, this is gonna be the best movie marathon of your life." Zuko cheered.

To be continued…

* * *

I dedicate this chapter to my friend Erica; she bought me food. :D

Review!!

Oh yeah, and also, I forgot to mention this in my last chapter, but please please please don't send me reviews that ONLY says "update!" cuz, althought I appreciate it, it does get pretty old...and a bit irritating if that's all my reviews say. So yeah... :D

-zkjanie


	10. Chapter 9 Part 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing…

* * *

_"Trust me 'tara, thus is gonna be the best movie marathon of your life." Zuko chuckled._

Katara eyed him skeptically, "We'll just see about that, now won't we?" and she sprawled herself down onto the couch before leaning over to the coffee table covered with all sorts of sweets and snacks from jelly beans and marshmallows to popcorn and chips. She dove right in for the jerky.

"...of course you'd go for those." Zuko laughed as he gave her a pile of rented DVDs and sat down next to her before going for the bowl of fire flakes. "'Kay, so I went and borrowed a couple movies for you to watch; they're mostly chick flicks, so uh, choose wisely."

Munching on the piece of jerky hanging out of her mouth, Katara nodded and quickly speculated the movies. Zuko, on the other hand, had his eyes fixed on her, without even being aware himself that he was doing that. His gold eyes carefully watched her as her face expressions varied with each movie she went through. Then, a smile finally formed on her face and she pulled out a DVD from the pile. "Okay, I know you're gonna hate me for this, but how about this?"

The Princess Bride.

Zuko did a double take. "The Princess Bride? You know I actually borrowed that one from Azula right?"

Katara, as she walked over to the DVD player, halted. "You're kidding. Why would she watch this, much less own it?" she put the disc in and pressed play and took her seat next to Zuko.

"Dunno. I guess there _is_ a girl behind that monster after all." Zuko tossed some fire flakes into his mouth. "But knowing her, she probably just likes the violence."

"And the blood." Katara added; her eyes were practically glued to the screen, and Zuko took this time to drown himself in thought. In fact, it was then she noticed how close she was sitting to him. Did she sit so close to him on purpose or was it just something that randomly happened? Her petite frame leaned next to his...not that he really minded.

Slowly, thoughts from before started to take over him as he kept his eyes on her, which she apparently hadn't noticed as of yet considering how into the movie she was. Had she too noticed the distance between them to be intimately close...then, could that possibly mean she was comfortable being that close to him? Was she going over mind-boggling thoughts like he was?

Or did she just not notice at all?

"Hey, your turn to choose." Katara questioned, making him lose his train of thought.

_Whoa, did it end that quickly?_ Zuko regained his composure and cleared his throat awkwardly, "Oh, um... I don't know. You can pick again."

Katara's face lit up. "Really? Thanks. I have the perfect one." She leapt off the couch and picked up an anonymous DVD off the pile of movies to play it. Zuko looked back and forth from the screen and to Katara.

"What is it?" he asked.

Katara smugged deviously, "Just watch it. It's great."

All of a sudden, loud music played out of the speakers as the movie started and the title ran across the screen.

A Walk to Remember.

"Huh."

"What? It's a good movie!" she retaliated.

"Alright, alright." Zuko gave in. "Happy?"

"You bet." Katara yawned and casually set her head on his shoulder. "You still didn't tell me why you're doing all this."

Zuko tilted his head down to look at her. Her blue eyes, even from the side, sparkled from the light coming from the TV.

As a couple seconds passed, Katara felt Zuko's intense gaze on her. She nearly blushed, but only nearly.

"Well, are you sure you really want to know?" Zuko replied.

"On second thought, I'm not sure."

Zuko simply shrugged.

"Nah, you can just tell me later after the movie or something." she decided and looked back to the TV, as did Zuko.

--

The day grew dark. Katara grunted a bit as she slowly started to wake from her nap. As she slowly tried to pry her eyes open, her arms unconsciously tightened themselves around--

Around 'what', exactly? For one thing, whatever it was, she had to admit, it felt pretty warm. She cracked open her eyes immediately and found her face buried quite comfortable into her companion's shoulder, and her arms clinging to one of his arms. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't altogether uncomfortable.

Blushing furiously, she whipped herself away and looked around. It was only 5pm and Zuko was still fast asleep. She sat up straight and her eyes wandered from the rest of the room to him. His black somewhat shaggy hair was swept neatly to the side; his bangs brushed slightly over the top of his eyes partly covered his scar

_His scar…I already know what happenedl…but it's still so sad._ She cautiously brought her tan hand to his face and brushed her fingers through part of his bangs, admiring the peaceful look on his face. _…He does look pretty cute though… _her fingers lowered down to his scar. Just as she was about to stroke the damaged skin surrounding his eye, a faint groan escaped Zuko's lips.

Katara gasped and removed her hand immediately as Zuko slowly started to wake up from his short slumber. Katara quietly coughed awkwardly as she saw him sit up straight rubbing his eyes. He looked around a bit, his eyes still half-shut. After briefly examining the room, his eyes started drooping a little as he slouched back to go back to sleep, not even noticing Katara as she scooted all the way to the other side of the couch innocently.

She stifled a small laugh as she saw Zuko act exactly the way her brother did in the morning, especially with the side-bedhead. She waited a couple minutes, then decided to wake him up. "Ahem, Zuko?"

Zuko quickly shot up from his slouch and his eyes suddenly became visible. "Hmm? Wha…" He turned o his right and saw Katara with big wide eyes. "Oh, hi. W-What time is it? How long was I asleep?"

Katara stood up after briefly calming down from her previous mental fit and went to turn off the TV. "Well, um, I woke up at around 5, and you woke up…now." She chuckled lightly.

Zuko fixed his disheveled hair and too decided to get up, "Oh, I see…"

"Yep. Well, it is getting a bit dark. I'm gonna head home now." Katara finally said looking out the window, then walked to the door.

"Oh, um, alright, okay. I can walk you over." Zuko joked.

Katara giggled at the irony, "Haha. It's 'kay. It seems like you're still tired. Especially after all the hard work you did to set this up for me. Speaking of which, thanks Zuko. Today was actually, surprisingly fun."

Zuko felt a bit of heat rushing to his cheeks and rubbed the back of neck. "Oh, nah! It was nothi--" His eyes dilated dramatically as he was suddenly attacked with a friendly hug. Katara quickly wrapped her arms around him. Although caught a bit off guard, Zuko began to wrap his arms around her pliant waist in return.

But then, Katara pulled away after a few milliseconds, and headed to the door to leave. "So, I'll see you tomorrow." She grinned and left. Zuko watched her leave and once the door slammed shut, he roughly settled into the couch near him. Finally, he sighed, "Maybe this will work after all, I just have to…think of something new now."

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the clock. It was nearing 5:30. He checked his phone for any messages and after looking at a new text from Mai, he realized he had completely forgotten to go over to her house. Apparently, his little movie day with Katara went a little overtime and he quickly ran upstairs to get changed.

--

Katara slammed the door behind her and began to walk toward her house next door. As she did, many rambling thoughts ran through her mind. Who'd have thought? Zuko's such a…sweetheart. Katara ran her fingers through her hair and unconsciously blushed with the thought repeating over and over in her head. She opened her front door and kicked off her shoes, only to find the place to be somewhat dark.

"Sokka! Turn the light on won't you?" Katara yelled and flicked on the light switch in the living room, and found him and Suki on the couch sleeping, and undoubtedly snoring. Their heads were on top of each other and his arm wrapped around Suki's bare shoulders. From the looks of it, apparently, they too stayed in for the day. Katara smled as she remembered the way she woke up pretty much snuggling Zuko. "What a coincidence." She whispered to herself and went to turn the TV off.

--

"Hey! Katara Wait up!" Zuko called out from down the hall. Katara stopped in her tracks and turned around; strain was written al over her face. In her arms was her massive science project of marine life. As Zuko came running toward her, he progressively began to slow down as he laid his eyes on the diorama. "Whoa! That's amazing!" he complimented and bent down to take a closer look on all the fake animals she created.

"Thanks." Katara breathed out as she continued to walk with Zuko.

He saw the tension on her face from the obvious heavy weight of the box and offered, "Um, do you want me to carry it for you?" Katara feebly nodded and attempted to put the heavy box into Zuko's arms, which she successfully did after some clever maneuvering.

She gave out a sign of relief as she massaged her arms. "Thanks. That thing is so heavy!"

"Oh, it's no problem." He replied with ease. "But, uh, I wanted to ask you something." The two stopped in front of Katara's classroom. "Yeah, so, I know it's a bit early in the week. But, are you doing anything Saturday afternoon?" Despite that their movie was only a couple days ago; hopefully she was free for another day with him.

Katara eyed him suspiciously. _Why's he keep…asking me out? _She soon realized what she involuntarily meant by that, but ultimately just shrugged it off. _Who cares if he asks me out? Can't friends just go out and have fun together? We went out with friends plenty of times together in middle school before, why would this be any different?_

…maybe because the situation's different now then how it was back in middle school. Now that I might be…feeling things other than a platonic friendship for him…it won't be just a simple playdate anymore. And…maybe it's the same for him too; especially after all of our…kissy incidents that had happened in the past couple months.

But, then again, what if it's the complete opposite?!

"Well?" Zuko's eyes were huge, as they kept waiting for a response.

"Is this--" Katara began to ask.

"Oh, it's not like, you know, a date or anything, but…" Zuko blurted out. _Maybe I'm being too forward?_

"Uh huh." Katara smirked. "But why?"

"Well, that's a surprise. Be ready by 9am." He said casually and left. Katara's eyes followed him as he walked down the hall and around the corner. As she turned around to walk into her class with her diorama, she failed to notice another pair of eyes that was on her. Inside the classroom on the far side of the room, a set of brown eyes watched her as she dragged her project to her desk, a hint of disappointment in his eyes as he realized it was the first time she didn't look at him as soon as she walked into the classroom. The bell rang and Jet turned forward to focus on his own project.

--

With his car parked on the curb in front of Katara's house, Zuko dusted off the imaginary filth on his clothes then carelessly slipped his hands into his pockets after skipping onto her porch. He reached his hand to ring the doorbell but before his finger even touched the button, the annoying sound of a revving car filled his ears and he whipped his head around.

A vintage green Cadillac pulled up behind his car and came to a stop. Zuko squinted his eyes with a threatening look on his face as he tried to see the person in the driver's seat, but couldn't because of the tint on the windows.

Well, it's definitely not Sokka. The dude got his car stolen. Zuko guessed, but stopped when he saw who came out of the car.

Zuko wrinkled his nose and furrowed his brow and a glint of fury lit up in his eyes, but he still managed to keep his cool. Jet then saw Zuko at the porch and stopped after a pause but then started to go up the steps of the porch, as if there weren't any underlying issues between him and Zuko.

"So, uh, Katara inside?" Jet casually asked gesturing to the door.

"What are you doing here?" Zuko asked back, completely disregarding Jet's question.

Jet took in a short breath as if about to answer but nothing came out of his mouth. He squinted his eyes a bit and smirked, then continued to speak. "I could ask you the same"

Zuko scoffed and shook his head, "Just shut and go."

It was Jet's turn to scoff as he stuck his hands into his pockets "and why should I listen to you? You're not the boss of me."

"Dude, Katara's been through enough because of you. Don't make it any worse for her by showing up here."

Jet, while his face remained calm, attempted to interpret Zuko's face expression but ultimately failed. He squinted threateningly at Zuko, only to receive a dangerous squint back. In the end, Jet simply smirked and lightly dusted off Zuko's shoulders, "Keep trying to come between Katara and me, and I'll have to beat you."

"Like I really give a damn." Zuko scoffed lightly, "Especially when the real issue here is why you're here."

"I don't really see why you're concerning yourself over this." Jet said calmly. "After all, I'm only here for Katara."

"Well, after what you did to her last a couple weeks ago, I'd focus on fussing over Ty Le instead, don't you think?"

Jet let out a light chuckle and smirked, "Man, I can't believe you guys are still hung up on that."

"…" Zuko glared at Jet as he snickered to himself. Jet was seriously testing Zuko's patience as he insisted on dusting off Zuko's shoulders again.

"But really, stop blocking my way, or I'll seriously have some fun beat you up."

Abruptly, Zuko roughly grabbed a fist of Jet's collar and whipped his arm into the air, his hand balled up into a tight fist aiming for him. But he didn't punch him…yet. He looked at Jet straight in the eye in hopes to find all the more reason to punch him.

Jet cracked a smirk and lifted his chin, "Go ahead. Hit me."

Jet was testing him. As much as he wanted to, Zuko knew exactly what Katara would say if he did bash his face in. Calmly, he let go of Jet and took a step closer and muttered, "Hurt her again, and then I _will_."

Jet smirked again and smoothed out the wrinkle on his shirt. "Well then, looks like I better scram before you change your mind then huh?" He just laughed heartily and headed back to his car and something in him just said that Zuko was still staring holes into his back.

He stepped into his car and grimaced angrily. "Damn it!" he grunted and drove away. Just as his car turned around the corner, Zuko hears the door behind him unlock.

"Hey Zuko." Katara said as Zuko turned around. "So, what exactly are we doing today?"

Zuko mentally shrugged off the little issue with Jet and, as they walked to his car, smiled, "Just follow me."

_To be continued…_

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* * *

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There's a part 3 after this...

:]


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